Tim Cook <z99### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Question:  are Christian churches likewise banned from constructing 
> steeples for their churches?

> Because if they're not, that is explicitly *forbidding a minority 
> something that the (presumably majority) has*, rather than by allowing 
> them that you're giving them something that everybody else doesn't have.

  You are only seeing it from the point of view of prohibiting a minority
from doing something that the majority can do.

  How about seeing it from the point of view of prohibiting something that
*everybody* is forbidden from doing? For example, most European cities have
strict regulations about what types of buildings can be constructed and where,
sometimes even for purely aesthetical reasons. You just can't go and build
whatever you want wherever you want. For example there are many towns here
where it's forbidden to construct buildings which are higher than a certain
amount of stories, and have all kinds of other aesthetical regulations (such
as the type of roof they can use).

  The city officials (usually elected by the citizens, at least here) have
decided what the town should look like, and thus have enacted such strict
restrictions on what types of buildings can be constructed.

  If the majority of citizens doesn't like the kind of aesthetics and
symbology that minarets would introduce to their town, they have the
right to decide on that. That's democracy.

  A minority coming and demanding that "we should be able to break the
construction regulations, accepted by the majority, because of our religion"
is obnoxious.

  If some religion cannot accept local culture, customs and regulations,
do you know where they can shove it?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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