Swiss researchers on how anti-Muslim attitudes have evolved there.

[pampango]

http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/07/12/swiss-research-study-attracting-muslim-world-interest/

Patrick Ettinger and Kurt Imhof concluded that in recent years a system has operated that has encouraged the Swiss to believe that Muslims are a danger. Three elements have created the situation, they say: terrorist attacks in other countries, the political strategy of right-wing populist political parties and a tendency for media to be more polarized and to generalize.

Imhof and Ettinger’s starting point, invariably picked up by media in several countries, is that the Swiss, after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US tended to lump together all immigrants who are Muslims, considering them a menace for Switzerland, and making little distinction for the wide range of countries, languages and cultures they bring to Switzerland. The immigrants, who come from places as different as Turkey, Macedonia and Morocco, with different religious practices, are viewed as members of the same ethnic group, while the immigrants see themselves first as Turks or Macedonians, for example.

The two researchers compared Swiss media coverage, parliamentary debates and documents starting in 1960. The early years showed Muslims rarely mentioned with a slight increase in awareness in 1979 with the fall of Iran, but religion was not focused on as an issue. The turning point was 2001, with the terrorist attacks in the US, with an increase in focus on “Muslims” as a group, but until 2004-2005, with attacks in London and Madrid, a distinction was made between Muslims abroad and those in Switzerland, who were considered to be well integrated.

The right-wing UDC (People’s Party) was largely responsible for crafting an image of a bellicose Muslim minority, write the authors, routinely pointing to immigrants’ religion before their nationality. But the other parties and the media, for all that they criticized the UDC, never started a debate that looked more closely at these issues, say Ettinger and Imhof.

[nomb]

1. If Islam were a political party DU would rightfully oppose its very existence and its every policy.

[pampango]

2. As we would Christianity-, Judaism-, Hinduism-, etc. based political parties.

Few of us support religion-based political parties. Fortunately it's a religion, not a political party.

It would seem that the Swiss Peoples Party opposes it as a religion even though it is not a political party though that is, as the researchers state "the political strategy of right-wing populist political parties" designed to win votes. Scaring people about the danger represented by "others" is a standard electoral strategy for right wing parties everywhere, including the US (see repubs and teabaggers).

[nomb]

3. Strip away the god, and you have female subjugation, active practice of stoning, submission, censors

It's the beliefs and practices. A far cry from the others you mentioned.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. All the religions mentioned have their extremists who do those sorts of things...

Why do you single out Islam? There's some appalling treatment of women by some Hindus in India, and the Haredi in Israel have the ultra-religious who attack women who aren't dressed modestly enough for their liking.

btw, the Muslims I know don't practise any of those things you said. Most don't...

[Ghost Dog]

9. Most don't. Indeed. n/t

[Violet_Crumble]

10. edited. I read yr post wrong...

Sorry :)

[nomb]

13. Sorry, moral equivalence fails here - look at these images of stoning, eye-gouging, hands chopped, e

It happens daily, in Iran, Saudi, Pakistan and dozens of places elsewhere.


Disgusting displays of inhumanity in the Islamic god's name.


And no I didn't need to link them because we all know they are just a mouse click away - hundreds of depraved images of evil.

[ZombieHorde]

5. I would be willing to consider parties based on Wicca, Taoism, Thelema,

New Age, and Neo Paginism.

My main concern would be crystal-based heath care.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Holy shit, you're right. nt

[izquierdista]

8. I see the resemblance

Can't tell the two apart!

[nomb]

11. Nah, the Burka looks more like Dr. Who's Daleks....

Who also seek total assimilation of all to submit to the Dalek/Borg "creed".



Coincidence? I think not.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Muslims are the new Commies n/t

[nomb]

14. "Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war."

"Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those are witless.

Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by ? Islam says: Kill them , put them to the sword and scatter . Does this mean sitting back until overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean that we should surrender to the enemy?

Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other verses and Hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war?

I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim."


Ayatollah Khomeini

[pampango]

16. How many Muslims do you know who care what Khomeini had to say?

About as many as Catholics I know who live their lives just like the Pope tells them to. (It seems funny now, but the Know Nothing Party of the 1850's was dedicated to keeping "scary" Catholics from immigrating to the US.) For every "scary" Muslim you can find, there is a "scary" Christian.

Muslims, Catholics, gays, blacks have all been demonized at one time or another as "out to get us" because they are just so different from us. Guess what? Catholics, gays, blacks and, yes, Muslims are more like you and me than they are different.

Most Muslims are like most people of any religion or of no religion - they want a job, a family and a good life. Are the wacko Muslims? You betcha, but Christianity has produced more than its share of wackos over the years, too.

Right wingers want to make Muslims out to be scary because finding a minority (gays, Blacks, Jews, Catholics) to blame your problems on is a tried-and-true method of getting ahead in politics. Scare-mongering is an old tactic. The targets may change over the decades and centuries but the tactics remain the same.

[nomb]

15. Atefah Sahaaleh broke my heart. It was then that I knew Islam as Evil and a scourge upon mankind.

She was a 16 year old girl - hung from a crane for removing her head scarf in court in a petulant teenage act of defiance.





So a sincere Fuck you to those apologists that defend such things - and the well they spring from.

[Odin2005]

17. The Swiss are extrordinarily socially conservative.

They didn't let women vote until the 70s.