As I commented before in another post, they were fighting for the right thing with the wrong argument!
I guess it was a marketing/propaganda strategy to win and it sure worked!
With all respect I have for good Muslims, Islam is generally perceived by some westerners (not only Swiss), by having a bad reputation is caused by many factors. Here are a few:
1. Most of the violence worldwide is done in the name of that religion.
2. Contrary to most of other religions that are mostly kept private and are seen as the relation between the individual and god, respecting each individual’s degree of commitment or even non commitment, Muslims feel the need to display their religion’s commitment. Not only they feel the need to display but to measure and judge others. This causes a tremendous pressure on the individual who struggles between what he practices and what he wants or feels need to show. This stimulates moral policing (rejected by human nature, particularly by non Muslims in general) and defensive and protective modes which result in hypocrisy.
3. The Koran does incite violence against the “enemy” that is why the extremists think that they are doing the right thing.
4. On the other hand, even knowing that those extremists are a minority, the majority of good Muslims don’t voice their views in public against Islamists. Leaving the impression that they consider "Infidels" worse than "Islamists".
For all the above reasons, if Muslims want to improve the reputation of Islam in the world, they have an enormous amount of work to do. Until then expect that non-Muslims will always be at a defensive side when it comes to being exposed to Islam.
I am telling you all this in the perspective of a non religious person, who lived in several societies, i.e., Christians, multi-cultural and Buddhist and now in an Islamic society. Never before I felt so uncomfortable with the hypocrisy and the moral police that we all face here. Always I have been curious and admire the local culture and even religious acts. My curiosity was motivated by the kindness, the welcoming feeling and the respect I always felt from the host country. Here in Qatar, it is sad to observe, for the first time, instead of spirituality usually associated to a religion, we get a lot of aggression, disrespect, abuse and hypocrisy.
PS. Lausanne is such a beautiful city, thanks to the Swiss system that protects its architectural characteristics!
Minarets, even if they are beautiful like the ones I posted above, they are not natural to the Swiss architectural landscape!
silex6,
As I commented before in another post, they were fighting for the right thing with the wrong argument!
I guess it was a marketing/propaganda strategy to win and it sure worked!
With all respect I have for good Muslims, Islam is generally perceived by some westerners (not only Swiss), by having a bad reputation is caused by many factors. Here are a few:
1. Most of the violence worldwide is done in the name of that religion.
2. Contrary to most of other religions that are mostly kept private and are seen as the relation between the individual and god, respecting each individual’s degree of commitment or even non commitment, Muslims feel the need to display their religion’s commitment. Not only they feel the need to display but to measure and judge others. This causes a tremendous pressure on the individual who struggles between what he practices and what he wants or feels need to show. This stimulates moral policing (rejected by human nature, particularly by non Muslims in general) and defensive and protective modes which result in hypocrisy.
3. The Koran does incite violence against the “enemy” that is why the extremists think that they are doing the right thing.
4. On the other hand, even knowing that those extremists are a minority, the majority of good Muslims don’t voice their views in public against Islamists. Leaving the impression that they consider "Infidels" worse than "Islamists".
For all the above reasons, if Muslims want to improve the reputation of Islam in the world, they have an enormous amount of work to do. Until then expect that non-Muslims will always be at a defensive side when it comes to being exposed to Islam.
I am telling you all this in the perspective of a non religious person, who lived in several societies, i.e., Christians, multi-cultural and Buddhist and now in an Islamic society. Never before I felt so uncomfortable with the hypocrisy and the moral police that we all face here. Always I have been curious and admire the local culture and even religious acts. My curiosity was motivated by the kindness, the welcoming feeling and the respect I always felt from the host country. Here in Qatar, it is sad to observe, for the first time, instead of spirituality usually associated to a religion, we get a lot of aggression, disrespect, abuse and hypocrisy.
PS. Lausanne is such a beautiful city, thanks to the Swiss system that protects its architectural characteristics!
Minarets, even if they are beautiful like the ones I posted above, they are not natural to the Swiss architectural landscape!