Minaret ban, Switzerland. Height; and Vista Preservation; not Xenophobia

Articles and comment about the Swiss ban on minarets.  These can be really high.  Here is one, a mosque with its minaret on Gibraltar, the minaret at least double the height of the mosque below.
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Minaret, mosque, Gibraltar

The articles against the Swiss ban on more minarets focus so far, mostly, on outrage: that Switzerland would restrict how people worship; that it is intolerant and closed.  See overview at the Harvard Law Review, at ://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/switzerland-s-minaret-ban-about-more-than-xenophobia-1.951293/  Does the Swiss ban really signify a high degree of fear and uncertainty. No.  It is pragmatic.

• Pragmatism.  

Minarets are no more necessary to religious practice than steeples.

Focus instead on the pragmatic impact of minarets on the practice of the religion.  Is it necessary.  No.  No more than our steeples are. What role does the minaret really play in the practice of the religion: it is no more symbolic than a steeple is. And the practice can go on without it. See role of the minaret at Swiss Minaret Ban, Narrow Tourist Vista Purpose.

Minarets do impact negatively on the tourist industry on which Switzerland substantially relies. How about the pragmatic impact of the proliferation of minarets on an industry on which Switzerland relies:  the tourism industry, the photographic opportunities, the lure of pretend.
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Thun Castle, view from tower, Switzerland

Interlaken, for example, is more Eastern-Indian-Other foreign than Swiss, it appears in walking about, and the experience is just that: global, great food, international, but not "Swiss" if that is important to you.

This idea of preserving the history, the tourism (that brings in money) also applies to Austria, and Northern Italy, the other angles of this most recent regional trip. Our photos and desire to return depend on fantasy. Is that worth preserving? Maybe not.

What if there had been minarets or other religious symbols dotting the landscape above roof level at Castle Bruck, Lienz, Austria;

Bruck Castle, view, Lienz, Austria

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or Turin, Italy, a city with a vast eastern and middle eastern population - just follow the trolley lines to the center, and go through vast markets.

• Fostering some "Pretend" in our lives
  

People make all kinds of things up to get by. Religion and romance and regret (the real Three R's) are full of it.

The "Pretend" involved here, in this minaret issue, is that you live or lived in this castle, yodeled on that hillside, were watching Heidi, or learning of William tell, or there when the Romans were, at Avenches or other places with Romans in Switzerland, or you were in a medieval canton, a renaissance or baroque church as it was being constructed.  I am a princess, yes, I watched from this window as my knight rode ever nearer.  Nuts, yes, but fun. Disney is made of fantasy.

I may well have had my own armor, yes, I did.  Take that, you stereotypers.

Women and men's armor, Thun Castle, Switzerland

• Promoting photography, scenic vistas.  Would we have taken this picture or that, if there had been a minaret there.  

 Probably not. Minarets are counter-old history. They are modern amalgamation symbols in modern countries with diverse populations.  Switzerland is modern and a mix, but its broad ethnic diversity should not hinder its tourism industry that profits on the old.

So: as tourists, we would have tried to move to another angle if a minaret had appeared in the lens, to avoid the intrusion of another culture's modern symbol when we were indulging our fantasies, much as we also avoid power lines and tour buses and Big Macs.

• Xenophobia?

Fear of the new, different, strange to oneself? See ://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xenophobia/

Not necessarily.  We see banning minarets as a desire for the experience we paid for:  the imagination, the fantasy, the beauty of the old scenes, untouched by the modern. Learning history. Is that worth anything? Maybe not. Maybe the new economic order (why don't steeples get allowed in the east?) makes minaret construction necessary. Are they needed to worship? No.

• The minaret, to the West, means Our Failure, Mistake, Blunder with Repercussions Centuries Later

Think of it.  What do minarets really mean to our Western culture?  Failure. Ours. Failure. Our failure.  The Crusades were the biggest religious, theological, political, and humanitarian mistake of that era.

Crusades: A Curiosity Now. But See Crusades as a Religious, Theological, Political Disaster Then. Also now. Templars at Malbork, Poland.

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We are still living the Crusades' repercussions. Minarets as symbol.

• Resolution.  

 So, why not allow new minarets at a height and in a location that will not disturb the photo-scenery industry - that is pragmatic - and no more until there is an exchange: western people's steeples can shaft as high in eastern and middle-eastern lands as they would have minarets shaft in the west.

Fair and balanced. Use zoning, height limits, placement, and a tourist's perspective if you want that. Ban entirely, okay since a feature of architecture is only that.

History-fantasy. That is what tourism thrives on. Why not. The minaret, the steeple, don't overblow what either means.