Viewpoint wrote:bill cobbett wrote:Viewpoint wrote:bill cobbett wrote:Viewpoint wrote:bill cobbett wrote:Referendums do play a very much bigger role in Swiss democratic system that than do elsewhere.
Elsewhere, including in a reunified CY, this would be a local planning issue, one where the local or district council would decide on the individual application for a minaret (or anything else).
Suspect they would not only look at the building but also on the mattr of noise. Some councils may look favourably on this noise issue by deciding that the calls to prayer would not impact on neighbours, other local councils may take a different view.
So in the real CY post-settlement world, this minaret business would, as it should, be a matter for the local level democratic planning system.
No big deal.
You can try and brush the issue under the carpet but it doesnt detract from the fact that this is a clear example of how the majority can use their numerical advantage to the detrement of the minority....next the GCs in a united Cyprus will vote to have minarets removed from all places of worship and all Atatürk statues from school playgrounds and then hide behind the "but the majority voted for it"....they did it in Switzerland why cant we...there are many manipulative games the GC can come up with,they are the masters at it after all.
Really VP ! Stop and do a little thinking before jumping out of the pram at every chance. You know as well as everyone else that on both sides of the ceasefire line, if you want to build immovable property you ask for permission from your local council.
A tissy local council in a tissy zone will probably look favourably on your minaret application whereas a greecy one may look on it less favourably. It remains a local planning matter which really you are trying to blow out of all proportion.
Now here's some help .... forget minarets, which are a non-issue, and think about dodgy statues of a certain past historical figure if you really want to be divisive and controversial. You may also wish to consider controversial flags and hillside graffitti when it comes to wider matters of what can and can't be erected.
You just stated thats a state council matter the GCs dont have to place one on their mountain we cannot do anything about according to you, the point here you have to get your pea brain around is that the majority can abuse their numerical advantage to the detrement of the minority...its the principle we are discussing.
Get back in the pram mate and leave out the rude personal insults.
... and consider that mosques and minerats have been a part of the CY villagescape for dozens of generations. They sit as comfortably in their settings as the Christian Churches of the other community. So repeat it's a non-issue, but a local council non-issue.
What doesn't sit comfortably, what has no long tradition or history, are the dodgy statues outside every public building, every school, every road junction etc etc. Now this is not a local council issue, and where these Stalinesque attrocities appear on public buildings or where they are situated elsewhere with an intention to create offence, to sow partitionist division and general disharmony, this is the real matter for CY-wide national debate.
You started the insults with your pram comment...so dont throw stones if you live in a glass house.
Does that mean the majority (GCs) can vote to have them removed from the north stat although the TCs dont want to get rid of them?
Why don't we leave aside what the majority population would want to see happen to these montrosities and consider what your own community might want done with these symbols of partition and division.
What would those thousands of tissys think should be done with these statues, those who marched in protest on the "parliament" building last week against the Turkification of their community and who got beaten with "police" batons and tear-gased for their troubles ? What would they think should be done with these and other symbols of Turkification?
You see mate, when it comes to things which are designed to offend one community and control the other, the debate isn't about the "tyranny of the majority" as you so hopelessly try to make of all this, but it's another non-issue, another non-debate, cos there is clearly so, so, so much cross-community Universal Condemnation of these symbols (and of other more direct actions by the Illegal Regime) of attempted Turkification.
