Bombs and Dollars – American Foreign Policy Blog – China, Afghanistan, Pakistan

The ban on minarets in Switzerland incites many emotions.

The first, being that I’m freedom-loving–and that indeed, Swiss voters were trying to protect freedom from the evils of terrorism and extremist totalitarianism–is that this is an assault on freedom of religion.

Yet while we support freedom of religion, we must protect freedom in general. This might not have been the right move to counter terrorism, but it is positive that at least something is trying to be done, even if it ends up having little positive effect.

There is an undeniable threat, evidenced by the well-known terrorist attacks in New York, London, Madrid, and Dubai, and too, by the violent protests, for example, outrage and death threats against Danish cartoonists. Anyone who is against this ban on the basis of religious freedom also has to be in favor of free speech.

The desire of radical Muslims is to take over the world.

The Wall Street Journal says that this move has no positive impact on stifling extremism:

Yet banning minarets does nothing to address that fear. It merely makes it less likely that the average Swiss will be confronted by a visible symbol of Islam upon his skyline.

While they are probably right, the move, as part of the broader picture, is at least a good start in looking for solutions, even if this particular solution is the wrong one. Better to try to fix it than to ignore it, as has been the case thus far in Europe.