Minaret ban: A look from non-EU Europeans

Europe: The True Signs of Moral Crisis

by Mirnes Kovac

Just two days ahead of Swiss referendum in which "minaret ban" was approved by 57 per cent of the Swiss voters, on the November 27^th, the grand mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina dr. Mustafa Ceric received Swiss ambassador to whom he expressed the hopes and expectations for the principles of human and religious rights to be upheld in entire Europe. His hopes and expectations, as well as of all other Bosnians (among them the native European Muslim people who just years ago were prevented from basic human right to self-defend their selves from most-notorious crimes of genocide committed in Europe after the Second World War) faded. The only relief, however sad it might sound, after this Swiss move is the fact that European Muslims now, at least, know better of their uncertainty.

Some weeks ahead I wrote the article about the minaret campaign inspired by the counter-campaign slogan and entitled it with the question: "Will the skies of Switzerland be wide enough?" No matter how optimistic I was in answering this query, a dose of anxiety gradually arosed as I watched and observed those "positive signs" that were repeatedly aired all the time on the both international media, as well as in Switzerland. The alleged optimistic prognosis and ballots conducted some weeks ahead of the referendum - which I now know were and stayed only allegations - were actually serving as mobilizing factor to those campaigning against, of course!

However, the real emotional relief came to me after short conversation with my great friend and I would say great non-EU European, Grand Mufti dr. Ceric, whom I called and from whose words  I calmed down my initial frustration.

After the greatest Muslim holiday Eid al Adha ended, on Tuesday, December 1^st dr. Ceric went into public with short and eventful message which I suppose every conscious European should bear in mind and think about it.

"It is interesting that Switzerland has chosen the greatest Muslim holiday (Eid al Adha, The Festival of Sacrifice)  to demonstrate to Muslims its might, or better said, its impotence in respecting human rights as fundamental postulate of the system of European values. I am not burdened by conspiracy theory, but interesting thing is that we the native peoples of Europe, Bosnians and Albanians, simultaneously at the time of Eid al Adha, our Festival of Sacrifice, receive the news of being exempt from visa-free travel system in European Union, and that the Swiss  on their referendum voted in favour of the ban for minarets," - said the Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric commenting the recent Swiss referendum.

"Having in mind that Bosnian Muslims have the experience of genocide, which is so close and so deep in their memory, the issue of minarets in Switzerland do have importance, but for them it is more important to have secured the right to live in Europe and the right to freedom from fear for the future of their children. Unfortunately, both messages - the first from the Brussels that we are less worthy than our neighbours Serbians, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Croats, and the second that comes these days from Switzerland, that our religious and cultural symbols are undesirable - are not encouraging and do not speak about Europe in which all humans and all peoples have equal rights and equal respect,' added Ceric warning that these last developments are clear signs that Europe is, apart from being in huge economic, also in deep moral crisis. "If it is aware of, then Europe instead of sinking deeper into the crisis, should see in European Muslims a partners for both economic as well as moral recovery. We hope that Europe will soon realize it and return to its own values of human rights, which by the voted ban on minarets in Switzerland and by denying visa-free travel to only Bosnians and Albanians, its only native Muslim peoples, heavily undermined!' - states the message of Grand Mufti Ceric who just few years ago wrote the Declaration of European Muslims in which he denounced the crimes committed in the name of Islam and called upon European Muslims to embark on the way of full integration into European societies.

Mirnes Kovac is the editor of the bi-monthly Preporod Islamic Magazine published in Sarajevo. He graduated in Islamic Studies from the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Sarajevo and has an MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex, UK. He is the author of the book "Islam as a Global Challenge" IPA, Sarajevo, 2004, as well as "Bosnia and Herzegovina: Country Report" in the Muslims of Europe Yearbook, Brill Leiden, 2009.