In one year, without any nail, no bell-tower

Posted by Radovan Geist on 02/12/09

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When Leopold I. Habsburg in 1861 allowed Protestants in Hungary to build their own churches, he could not expect that he would have such brave followers. But now, it’s not the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, which tears Europe (unless we subscribe to highly unsustainable rationalization of the conflict on the north-western periphery of our continent), but the existence of sinister Muslims, who are allowed to clean our toilets, build our cities, bake kebabs, and stuff our banks with petrodollars, but are not allowed to call to their prayers from minarets in our alleged “homeland”.

During the last weekend the Swiss (or a majority of the majority that bothered to vote) decide that they do not want any new minarets in their country. Officials hurried to stress that the five-percent Muslim minority is still welcome (even if the Swiss People’s Party representatives leave little doubts that the “still” should be in fact substituted with “for now”). But the fact is that the citizens of the alleged show-case of European democracy decided to make the practicing Muslims´ lives yet another bit more unpleasant – first the muezzins on minarets were forbidden; now there should be no new, obviously useless, minarets.

Maybe at the end we will see that the Swiss would overcome their historical animosity and get inspired even more by the Leopold I. Habsburg’s Articules from 1681. Those have wholeheartedly allowed Protestants, living under the major protectors of Catholicism, to build churches; they gave just few conditions: churches must be built on the margin of village or town, have to be build in one year, completely made of wood, without using any nails, on very low stone basis, without any bell-tower, and with a gate not facing the street… - surely a nice shopping list, offering lots of inspiration for any extremist. The problem is that Leopold´s Articules were really wholehearted compared to the Swiss referendum – they were granting the religious minority freedoms, which it did not have before, not vice versa.

The result of the voting surely cheered hearts of all European right extremists, who might have problems to unite on something, but are always happy to unite against something (or even better, somebody). Duch Freedom Party (let us not be mistaken, another infamous party from the European history had in its name “socialist” a “workers´”, without any correlation to its real politics) have already said that “what is possible in Switzerland, could be possible also here” (meaning, in the historical stronghold of the European religious tolerance). That’s exactly the point! Far right has really “iron” logic. If Switzerland could forbid minarets, so could the Netherlands. The United Kingdom does not have to stay back. And Polish could forbid stone synagogues. And Turkish could restrict Christian churches with towers. In Slovakia, we have already made registration of any “Muslim church” impossible by law, so we are safe.

Habsburg counter-reformation did not bring Protestants in Hungary on the “right path to God”. On the contrary, they have fought on hundred years of bloody civil wars to get their rights set in Leopold´s Articules. Europe was never too much bothered by the consistency of its words and deeds (in this case, on tolerance and human rights). But it should be at least bothered by the history lessons.

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