I have opposed Barack Obama since his campaign for President began. To me, it represented a disturbing populist uprising that was far more concerned with personality than politics, and more focused on ethnicity than ethics. I was afraid that with the country in the midst of troubling economic circumstances, our governmental and financial structures were vulnerable, and that Obama might use the country’s relative weakness to push a socialist agenda. But if there is one thing I dislike more strongly than the current President’s politics, it is the way some choose to express their opposition.

Let’s be clear about what happened recently in Switzerland: a nation that until recently had been widely known for tolerance and civility took away the right of one religion, Islam, to build minarets on top of their places of worship, despite the fact that there are currently only four minarets in all of Switzerland, and even those do not issue the traditional call to prayer. This ban was enacted under the guise of protecting Switzerland’s culture. Such a trampling of religious rights is indefensible in a free nation.