A resounding success in the war on architecture

Swiss voters have shown the world that when it comes to stupidity and irrationality they are no laggards. They are getting ready to change their constitution in order to demonstrate their irrational bona fides. Now that is a commitment to pure stupidity that we in the US can well admire. I mean, from time to time we pass moronic laws - DOMA springs to mind - but we don't usually go around changing our constitution to accommodate our most baseless fears. Wow, way to go Switzerland! The Guardian reports:

Swiss voters have approved a proposal to ban the construction of minarets, after a rightwing campaign that labelled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a respected polling institute show.

The projections based on partial returns indicate that support swung from 37% in favour of the ban a week ago to 59% in today's referendum.

Claude Longchamp, head of the gfs.bern polling institute, said the projection for state-owned DRS television showed approval in more than half the country's 26 cantons, meaning the measure will become a constitutional amendment.

The dreaded Muslims are about to take over the brave and valiant and blond Swiss.

Muslims make up about 6% of Switzerland's 7.5 million people, many of them refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13% practice their religion, the government says, and Swiss mosques do not broadcast the call to prayer outside their buildings.

A whole 0.78% of the Swiss population perhaps praying in these mosques with minarets - clearly something to be really really scared of. And horrors, one might end up with scenes like these. But, no fear, the Swiss are fighting back

... with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

...

On Thursday, Geneva's main mosque was vandalised when a pot of pink paint was thrown at the entrance. Earlier this month a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.