January 2010

It had been snowing all night and Achmed didn't want to get out of bed this morning. His job as a postman would be especially difficult today. Everyone would be in a nasty mood due to the snow.

He loved the snow, and appreciated the pristine silent atmosphere that encouraged him to reflect on the contradictions between his native Morocco and his country of adoption; Switzerland.

Not France, not Britain and certainly not the United States, but minute “isolated” Switzerland was truly the country par excellence of individual freedoms. He thanked his lucky stars every day that he was able recently to become a citizen; first of the city of Lausanne where he had been residing for the past twelve years, then of the Canton of Vaud and thus of Switzerland.

Achmed was not a religious person even though he had been brought up a Muslim by his parents back in Casablanca. When in doubt he turned to the teachings of Mohamed and took comfort in the Koran. However he did not recite his daily prayers nor had he ever been to Mecca and he had no intention of ever doing so.

For him, showing respect for his fellow man was the key to a successful life. No matter what your background was, expressing integrity in your daily routine dealings should always take priority. He was therefore, very dismayed to learn a fortnight ago that he, as a Swiss citizen, would be called to the polls in November to vote on a most unusual matter. Apparently, an initiative had been proposed to forbid the construction of minarets (towers) on future mosques to be built in Switzerland! At present there were only four in the country. The Federal Council, the executive branch of the Swiss Government and both houses of Parliament rejected the initiative. Nonetheless since it was a 'people's' initiative, according to the Swiss Constitution, it had to be voted upon. The Government felt that it would menace religious freedom in the country and discriminate against the 350'000 Muslims, mostly from the Balkans, living peacefully in Switzerland. Achmed believed the same.

Obviously, it was a ploy by the Nationalistic far-right leaning “Volks” (People's) Party to stir up another of their “hate” campaigns, this time against an 'unofficial' religion. No one took it very seriously. The three other coalition parties; the Social Democrats together with the Greens, the Christian Democrats (Center Left) and the Radicals (Center Right) didn't even bother to raise their voices in opposition as they deemed the whole farce as being beyond the ridiculous. Surveys taken up to a week before the vote showed a major defeat for the Volks Party. The resident Muslims in Switzerland did, however, organize a rally in Bern in front of the Federal Parliament building for the weekend before the vote. Not many showed up, not enough to even get mentioned in the media. Achmed didn't go to the rally. Hence he would not waste his time in voting at all. Instead he went to Geneva to attend the Conference on Peace in the Middle East at the International Red Cross HQ's, which was open to the public. This was a mistake. The initiative passed with a very slight margin BUT nevertheless passed. Achmed realized that he should have gone to the protest rally instead of the peace meeting!