Il Giornale, December 3, 2009

As tothe decision by Switzerland to ban minarets, I would like first ofall to say that, in my years as a correspondent from Jerusalem, I hadto bear the Muezzin’s call from a nearby mosque every night at 4 a.m.,much before the cock crow. And nor far away from him came many othersimilar voices. However, I never thought that the Muezzin had to besilent. In his village, he does not sing to be heard also from me, butto call his followers to pray. This is religious freedom and Jerusalemgives it to everybody. Thinking that, down there, he was trying toconvey a political message in addition to a religious one, would mean togo well beyond what is legitimate for a person who is democratic,liberal and respectful of other people’s culture and religion.

Actually, except for some pathological cases, Islamophobia is aninvention of the U.N. Indeed, in 2004, the U.N. Secretary General KofiAnnan officially defined it as the cause of frustration for manyMuslims, without mentioning the rampant jihad and other huge problems.In fact, in most countries of origin and abroad, the official Islam hasnot accepted the universal declaration of human rights. But it hasresponded with other initiatives such as the Cairo Declaration, whichstates that “anyone has the right to support what is right and to warnagainst what is wrong and evil in line with the Islamic Sharia”.

Theultimate reason that led the Swiss to say no to new minarets, is notpoor respect for religious freedom. It is not even the loss of identitythat is driving us – erroneously – to ask for the cross on our flag. Ithas nothing to do with this. There are many simple reasons ofdiffidence that prevent from wishing for the expansion of Islam. Norshould we imagine that this choice invites the Muslim to embraceextremism. There are indeed other reasons behind jihadism – that is fedonly by itself and by its unflinching decision to convert the world.The Swiss watch the TV and are concerned: the Sharia leads to deathsentences, to the hanging of homosexuals, to stoning people to death.In general, Islamic countries are ruled by dictatorships, thedissidents suffer, they die. The Christians are persecuted, let alonethe Jews. The groups and the countries that cry their faith louder arealso the most evident ones: certainly both Ahmadinejad's Iran and theHezbollah, or Hamas or Al Qaida, represent negative, terrorist models.

Ofcourse, the Islam is not all like this. But, let us talk about it. Letus thoroughly examine the problems without being accused ofIslamophobia; we have a problem, either we solve it by looking at theIslamic immigration in its eyes, or soon this concern will turn intorejection. And the idea that the true Islam is elsewhere with respectto jihad is not able to placate these fears within the public opinion:there are few and rare instances in which a brave Islamic voice speaksto guarantee the respect for democracy, sexuality, convertedindividuals, dissidents. It is the politically correct denial thatmakes jihad prosper: in Switzerland, after the arrest of eight peoplewho allegedly collaborated to some suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, thereaction of the head of a local Muslim group was that “the problem isnot the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, but the intesification ofIslamophobia”. In the USA, the same happened after the Fort Hoodincident.

It is forbidden to laugh for some cartoons that talkabout Islam. It is forbidden to deal with the terrifying oppression ofwomen, it is disgraceful to stress that there is an evidentidentification between the Islam and totalitarian regimes. It ishorrible to raise the issue of honor killing, polygamy and ofdisfiguring women with acid that push us back in time (yes, many ofthese episodes result from tribal and not by religious habits, butplease let us look at the geographical and sociological distribution ofthese episodes) and especially it is generic to speak about jihad...And then, since whatever is concrete is forbidden, the reaction isagainst the symbols of the Islam.

There are millions of mosqueswithout minarets in Islamic countries. But if they are built close tochurches, they are taller, more proud and powerful. The construction ofan Islamic place of worship has a series of explicit secular meaningsthat always reiterate the holy competition of the Islam to conquer theworld. Many mosques have been built on ancient Jewish and Christiantemples.

A revolt against the politically correct on the Islammay occur anywhere and the trigger will not be religious intolerance:it does not belong to us or to Switzerland or to Europe.