On Sunday, a majority of the Swiss population acted to vote the minaret out of their culture.

Seen as otherwise by those who voted against it, the minaret is in fact a symbol that evokes prayer and it is seen as such not only by the Muslims but also by Jews and Christians.

It is also an inspirational architectural feature of the mosque, the Islamic place of worship. Besides, its purpose for calling the Muslims to, and guiding them in what they see as true, prayer, the minaret's form recalls the function of the lighthouse. Apparently, the word derives from the Arabic word manâra. "Minaret" seems to have also the same semantics and lexical roots as the Maltese word mnara (clay lamp that supports a flame to give light) and mnarja (illumination by means of mnari or bonfires).

Rather than as a feature that threatens Europe as we know it, I see the minaret as a reminder of the importance of prayer, which enlightens not only the individual but also the public square and as a challenge for us Europeans to return to the beacon that Christ has been, and still is, in the formation of European culture.

It is not by voting the minaret out of our landscapes that our basic freedoms and dignity are assured but by voting in the Christian values that the European establishment is often seen to be wiping out of the European soul.

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