What Makes Switzerland Sane?

I know my country is insane. I mean, we elected Barack Hussein Obama as our president — so sign the commitment order, right?

To make it worse, even after two years’ of evidence that Mr. Obama is incompetent or malign — or both — he still enjoys the approval of nearly half of all likely voters, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, and stands a very good chance of being re-elected.

Yes, it’s time to put a straitjacket on the American voter.

Things are no better in Western Europe. A flood of penniless refugees is pouring into Italy from North Africa, and the Council of Europe orders Italy not to expel them. The leaders of major European countries pay lip service to the idea that Multiculturalism is moribund, yet they continue to pursue deeply unpopular immigration policies that bring more and more Muslims into their countries, and maintain in place the disastrous anti-assimilation structures that guarantee more and more violent home-grown Islamic zealotry.

So let’s send Europe to the asylum along with the Yanks.

There are, however, pockets of relative sanity in Europe, and Switzerland seems to be one of them. Maybe the Swiss preserved their psychic equilibrium by staying out of the EU. Or perhaps the bracing Alpine air is conducive to optimum neuronal functioning.

Whatever the reason, another example of Swiss sanity is in the news. According to SwissInfo:

Citizenship Refusal Confirmed by Federal Court

An Algerian considered to be too close to his homeland’s Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) has seen his request for Swiss citizenship turned down by the Federal Court.

Judges in Lausanne confirmed an earlier decision by the Fribourg cantonal authorities, which considered the 61-year-old man as still being linked with the FIS.

During the naturalisation procedure he was heard by a Fribourg parliamentary committee. At that meeting, he described the FIS as a political party whose goals were to fight corruption and bring democracy to Algeria.

The committee vetoed his citizenship request in 2009, saying the FIS wanted to create an Islamic state and that it equated democracy with atheism. These positions, it added, were antithetical to Switzerland’s fundamental principles and legal system.

Note: the European Union would not allow this man’s documented radical tendencies to keep him out of Europe. What’s more, no country of the EU would be allowed to send him home, because he might face torture and execution — deporting him to his contry of origin would violate EU human rights laws.

The article continues:

The court agreed, adding that the decision was not discriminatory. It pointed out that the refusal was largely based on the fact that the man had not distanced himself from FIS doctrine or its terrorist activities, presenting the movement as a democratic party.

The man was a member of the FIS until 1992, when it was officially disbanded, and served as its secretary-general in the Algerian city of Oran.

This was an eminently sensible ruling by an eminently sensible federal state.

It’s a depressing sign of our times that such a small, mundane, normal immigration decision by a Western country is a notable anomaly.


Hat tip: C. Cantoni.