Thanks for your response, I do appreciate it. To me banning minarets just seems like a way of pissing off/antagonizing a minority group for racist or xenophobic reasons. And how is a minaret symbolic of a form of Islam that is at odds with western society? This means you are saying that all of Islam is at odds with western society? Which means you are sending a not so friendly message to a minority community within your nation......
The Swiss minaret ban is a sign against a radical, political form of Islam which cannot be reconciled with our democratic values - but not against the religion itself since a minaret does not have a religious purpose here.
As Ayaan Hirsi Ali puts it:
"There are two ways to interpret the vote. First, as a rejection of political Islam, not a rejection of Muslims. In this sense it was a vote for tolerance and inclusion, which political Islam rejects. Second, the vote was a revelation of the big gap between how the Swiss people and the Swiss elite judge political Islam."
"The minaret is a symbol of Islamist supremacy, a token of domination that came to symbolize Islamic conquest. It was introduced decades after the founding of Islam."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2009/1205/p09s01-coop.html
