Anti-Minaret Online Referendum

[DisturbedPervert]

They should ban the call to prayer while they're at it.  That's the most annoying shit on earth.  In Malaysia once I accidentally stayed in a hotel that was right next to a mosque, absolute hell being woken up after a night of drinking by a loudspeaker blaring moon chants at 5am.

[Neil]

Of course not, it's a symptom of short sighted bigotry.

Why is that particular brand of bigotry short-sighted?

[Razgovory]

Well keep in mind, the Swiss didn't allow women to vote until the 1970's.

[Strix]

How will we drop the bomb between the minarets then?

Seriously- nah. The FBI needs a place to bug.

Damn you! I just posted that and had to go back in delete it.

I see no point to banning a building, irrespective of it being a associated with a particular religion or organization.

On the practical side, if you do ban minarets and mosques, it won't stop people from worshiping. They will still gather but it will be in other places. Worse yet, you will turn honest and innocent moderates into radicals as you infringe on their beliefs.

[Ed Anger]

Well keep in mind, the Swiss didn't allow women to vote until the 1970's.

Smart nation.

[Strix]

A liberal society can not survive on the long term.

I fixed that for you!

[Strix]

They should ban the call to prayer while they're at it.  That's the most annoying shit on earth.  In Malaysia once I accidentally stayed in a hotel that was right next to a mosque, absolute hell being woken up after a night of drinking by a loudspeaker blaring moon chants at 5am.

I find it funny that a religion who claims it's followers are so devout NEED to be reminded when to pray each day.

[Pat]

They should ban the call to prayer while they're at it.  That's the most annoying shit on earth.  In Malaysia once I accidentally stayed in a hotel that was right next to a mosque, absolute hell being woken up after a night of drinking by a loudspeaker blaring moon chants at 5am.

I'm not opposed to building minarets but I agree the call to prayer should be banned. The cacophony of a multitude of them trying to out-shrill each other in their ululating is absolutely horrendous.


edit: At my hotel in Kuala Lumpur the manager tried to drink me under the table with free vodka drinks and then offered me girls of the night. I'm glad I was still sober enough to understand that would not have been a good idea. He probably had some kind of plan for me. But I got free drinks so it ended happy as far as I'm concerned.

[Malthus]

I don't mind the call to prayer, if it is done well and not at an inappropriate time.

I also like the sound of church bells. I live near three churches and I kinda like hearing 'em. I wouldn't like it much at 5 am though.

What I hated in Indonesia was the cheap-ass calls to prayer that were just bad tape recordings. Have some guy with a good voice do it live.

[Pat]

^

When I visited my father in Jakarta this summer, they were not only live, they actually seemed to do battle with each other 

[Tamas]

The cacophony of a multitude of them trying to out-shrill each other in their ululating is absolutely horrendous.

Luckily for us, Martinus holds a firm shrilling monopoly in Warsaw, so there is a barrier for their expansion.

[dps]

My first reaction was "this is bollocks" but it made me think:

We (well, most of Europe) do not allow all political ideologies to roam free. We try to silence the extreme ones.

In America, we don't believe in doing that.  I'm not saying that we've never done it in practice (not the only way we've failed at times to live up to our ideals), but it's something that's just not right.

So why should a liberal society allow someone to build a temple to preach ideas like secondary role for women, unholy nature of gays, and all that jihad crap. Again: if some bloke was to preach the teachings and laws present in islam completely free of religion, just as a purely political platform, he would be banned and/or thrown out of society.

Because the very definition of a liberal society is one in which ideas different from or even opposed to those of society as a whole can be discussed and advocated freely.

A liberal society can not survive on the long term if it does not defend its basic ideas vehemently.

And the proper way to defend them is to argue for them, not try to ban competing ideas.  If you are banning ideas you don't like, you have no claim on being a liberal society.

[Ed Anger]

The cacophony of a multitude of them trying to out-shrill each other in their ululating is absolutely horrendous.

Luckily for us, Martinus holds a firm shrilling monopoly in Warsaw, so there is a barrier for their expansion.

Franchises are cheap at least. You need a white suit.

HOLY CRAP, MART IS COLONEL SANDERS.

[Malthus]

^

When I visited my father in Jakarta this summer, they were not only live, they actually seemed to do battle with each other 

I was there more than a decade ago. Maybe things have changed. When I was there, it was all by recording, usually with lots of extra hissing and static.

Point though is that if one group of religions can toll bells publicly, another ought to be allowed, within reason, to sing or chant publicly.

[Barrister]

They should ban the call to prayer while they're at it.  That's the most annoying shit on earth.  In Malaysia once I accidentally stayed in a hotel that was right next to a mosque, absolute hell being woken up after a night of drinking by a loudspeaker blaring moon chants at 5am.

It's not restricted to Islam.

The hotel RH, Tamas, Ank and I stayed at in Cortina, Italy we were awoken by a very loud church bell at 7am after a night of drinking.