A few weeks ago the Cihan news agency reported a story about a debate in Switzerland over the construction of a minaret in Langenthal. 

The Islamic cultural centre in Langenthal, 
Switzerland,  that has been prevented from 
building a minaret.

According to the story Muslims using an old paint factory for worship asked permission from the local administration to build a five-meter minaret on the roof of the factory. After the local administration approved, people began to speak out. Claiming that minarets are not necessary for worship, the Swiss People's Party, a right-wing group holding a majority in the country's parliament, launched a campaign to ban minarets. They tried to collect signatures for a general referendum on the ban, but the Berne administration cancelled the campaign indefinitely. 

Oskar Freysinger from the Swiss People's Party said, "If you want to live here, you have to accept our laws. Otherwise go back to your country." Some Cabinet ministers opposed this campaign, taking into consideration the possibility that it could anger Muslims. According to one Swiss newspaper, 43 percent of the population there is "against minarets". 

The church tower of Katarina Kyrka and 
the minaret of the Mosque of in Stockholm.

Although the terms "multi-cultural" and "coexistence" are slowly losing popularity nowadays, this is an interesting article because it shows that Europe, like most other places, has problems when it comes to living with multiple ethnic and religious groups. In Europe there is a growing Muslim population with 20 million Muslims in Vienna and countries to the west. 

Those who oppose the construction of the minaret say "the minaret is an Islamic symbol." It is correct that the minaret is one of the symbols of Islam. If you look at a city from afar and see a minaret and the silhouette of a mosque, you know there are Muslims present in that city. However the history of Islam has no record of an "Islamic city model" where only Muslims live and which is decorated solely with Islamic symbols. In any predominantly Muslim city, notable exceptions being Mecca and Medina, one can also find many non-Muslim symbols. Throughout Islamic history and during the Ottoman era, all houses of worship (i.e., mosques, churches, and synagogues) were located in the city center. In other words, it wasn't as though mosques were built in the city center and the churches and synagogues were built in the outskirts of the city. That is how a real multicultural and multi-social society should be. In this type of plural society, there are many options for religious and ethnic groups to represent themselves. Every religion and ethnicity can demonstrate its values through architecture, music, language, accents, food, clothing and etiquette. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral
in Karachi, Pakistan

There are examples of this in Istanbul, Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad, Tehran and all other Islamic centers. Sultan Abdulhamit built three houses of worship in the common lodging area -- one for Muslims, one for Christians and one for Jews. Today these buildings still stand side-by-side. Additionally there are mosques, churches and synagogues next to each other in Istanbul's historical peninsula and the areas of Eminonu, Fatih, Beyoglu, Uskudar and Kadıkoy. No one has ever said "you are Christian or Jewish and if you want to live here, you have to accept our laws (in other words you have to remove your symbols and temples)." On the contrary Islamic laws have provided representation rights for different religions. Hence the cause of intolerance towards various religions is not Islam and its sociopolitical experience, but rather the 20th century's modern political and cultural viewpoints. 

Ali Bulac is a columnist for Zaman, an English daily newspaper from Turkey