Swiss Vote on Minarets: Anti-Islamic?

In what many are calling an embarrassing and shamefuk development for Switzerland, voters there have approved a law banning minarets, the traditional adornment built on the top of musim mosques.

300,000 Muslims live in Switzerland, mostly from Bosnia, Kosovo and Turkey, and this vote seems to show increasingf prejudice against them, and fear of their religion as Islam is the target of so much recent negativity. Juan Cole, an expert blogger on Arab and Muslim affairs, says this "Swiss Islamophobia Betrays Enlightenment Ideals" and "Islam is not new to Europe. Parts of what is now Spain were Muslim for 700 years, and much of the eastern stretches of what is now the European Union were ruled by Muslims for centuries and had significant Muslim populations...with minarets dotting the European landscape for many centuries." Which means the muslim community should not be looked down upon as some newfound evil invaders. Hopefully reason will prevail, but this Swiss vote seems like a bad sign for the region.

Swiss Vote on Minarets
reuters

Swiss voters have approved a right-wing-backed proposal to ban construction of new minarets, initial projections showed on Sunday, a surprise result that could damage Switzerland's economic ties with Muslim states. If confirmed, the result would be a huge embarrassment for the neutral Swiss government...

Swiss Vote on Minarets