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Did the Swiss miss the mark with minaret ban?

06 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul prays that that the Philippians "may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ" in this Sunday's second reading. Commentators are blaming apathy and low turnout among liberal-minded Swiss voters for the surprising approval over the weekend of a ban on building minarets on Muslim houses of worship. Some fear the vote reflects rising hostility across the region to an increasing Muslim presence. The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said the referendum's success was the product of "anti-foreigner scare-mongering," and some Swiss media outlets were criticized for fomenting such attitudes. Pillay said she was saddened to see xenophobic arguments gain such traction with Swiss voters despite their "long-standing support of fundamental human rights." The criticism from Pillay, whose office is based in the Swiss city of Geneva, was accompanied by an outcry of protest from Muslim nations and other countries around the world. But some European nations were muted in their criticism, reflecting Europe's broader struggle to integrate Muslims into mainstream society. Neighboring France, for example, is embroiled in its own debate on whether burkas-the traditional Muslim women's clothing--should be banned in public. The referendum doesn't affect Switzerland's four existing minarets or the ability of Muslims to practice their religion. It only bans the towers used to put out the Islamic call to prayer. Muslims make up about 5 percent of the country's 7.7 million population. "This is another blow to the world's view of Switzerland as a nation of tolerance and civilization," a senior Swiss diplomat said. The business community and most churches also had urged voters to turn down the minaret ban, which they said breached the Swiss Constitution and its guarantees of freedom of religion. The proposal would only "serve the interests of extremist circles," the government had warned. An appeal of the vote likely will be lodged with the European Court of Human Rights. Source: Articles by Juliette Terzieff for World Politics Review, Charles Bremner for TimesOnline.co.uk, Ecumenical News International, and Bradley S. Klapper for Associated Press

Muslims europe swiss switzerland minarets navi pillay
Future of nuclear power clouded by Japanese crisis

27 Mar 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus tells the Samaritan woman he is the "gift of God” who shows God’s great care for God’s people. In the aftermath of the post-earthquake disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, a number of countries are questioning whether nuclear power is a gift and if human beings are really capable of caring for it. Several nations have begun to reexamine their nuclear policies, though no consensus exists on how to move forward. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for the European Union to have common safety standards for nuclear power plants, but ahead of a meeting of European leaders in Brussels Thursday energy ministers could not even agree on how and when to conduct stress tests on European nuclear plants. For its part Germany plans to abandon nuclear energy for good. The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but now it is being accelerated in the wake of the Japanese disaster. Germany’s phase-out may provide a road map that countries such as the United States, which uses a similar amount of nuclear power, could follow, but not countries like France, which relies on nuclear energy for more than 70 percent of its power and has no intention of shifting. In Italy the prospect of losing upcoming local elections has forced the conservative government to slow its push to reintroduce nuclear power. Rome is calling for a one-year moratorium on nuclear power, but antinuclear activists say it's a ploy to buy time. Switzerland said it was halting plans for new reactors, while other countries, including the U.S., announced reviews of plants. Still others, however, said they would forge ahead with nuclear energy plans. Jesus calls on his followers to “do the will of the one who sent me,” and the ongoing crisis in Japan raises ethical as well as environmental and health issues about energy use and the future of nuclear power, said Catholic ethicists. The accident could be a "huge wake-up call" that would "give impetus to jump starting massive research" in other energy technologies, such as solar and wind power, said William French, director of the Center for Ethics at Loyola University Chicago. Sources: Articles by Mario Trujillo for PRNewswire-USNewswire, Sylvia Poggioli for National Public Radio, the Associated Press, and Catholic News Service

angela merkel nuclear power plants fukushima daiichi switzerland european union japan germany energy italy nuclear power nuclear reactors
Tragic end to schoolchildren’s Alpine ski outing

18 Mar 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

During their exile the Jewish people “sat and wept” by the streams of Babylon when they remembered Zion. Parents in Belgium wept at the news that a tour bus carrying schoolchildren home from a class ski trip slammed head-on into a tunnel wall in the Swiss Alps, killing 22 Belgian students and six adults late Tuesday night. As authorities tried to piece together what happened, parents, classmates, and rescue workers struggled to grasp the awful turn of events. Only days earlier the children had updated a lively blog about the highlights of their adventure: ravioli and meatball dinners, cable-car rides, and sing-a-longs. Police said the bus was not speeding and everyone aboard had been wearing seat belts when it crashed inside the 1.5-mile Tunnel de Geronde on a highway near the southern Swiss tourist town of Sierre. No other vehicles were involved. Belgian authorities flew anxious parents and relatives to the site and called for a day of mourning. Investigators were still trying to determine how a modern bus, a rested driver, and a seemingly safe tunnel could produce one of the deadliest highway crashes in Swiss history. Dr. Jean-Pierre Deslarzes, medical director of the local Swiss rescue service OCVS, said first-responders were traumatized because so many of the victims were children around 12 years old. The accident virtually shredded the front end of the bus, leaving only small, barely recognizable pieces in place. Passengers were trapped inside. “We found an apocalyptic situation when we arrived,” said police commander Christian Varone. Sources: An article by Frank Jordans, Raf Casert, and Robert Wielaard for the Associated Press

Children switzerland alps tunnel de geronde sierre bus crashes belgium accidents