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OFFBEAT

Swiss canton relaxes holiday boogie ban

Swiss canton Neuchâtel has reduced to two the number of days on which it is forbidden to dance in public.

Swiss canton relaxes holiday boogie ban
Ratko Gregor Jagodic (File)

Swinging on the dance floor will remain off limits on Good Friday and Christmas Day, but residents who fancy a shuffle now have five extra days on which to bust a move after local authorities had a rethink about their long-standing boogie ban. 

For years, the government of canton Neuchâtel, in eastern Switzerland, has been under pressure to change a law many considered out of touch with the modern world. In a statement released this week, Neuchâtel authorities said shaking a leg on religious holidays can no longer be considered “disrespectful”.

Moving rhythmically to the sound of music is still considered a sin on certain days in many parts of Switzerland.

A total of seven cantons ask their residents to turn down the music and put their dancing shoes away for Christian religious holidays, particularly Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Aside from Neuchâtel, dancing on selected holy days is also frowned upon in cantons Uri, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Basel-Landschaft, Solothurn and Appenzell Innerrhoden.

In practice, the ban on jiving means that dance halls and nightclubs are closed on religious holidays. For the most part, the prohibition is restricted to Catholic cantons in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, Neuchâtel being one of the exceptions.

Other cantons have removed the holiday shackles from footloose citizens in recent years. In May 2010, Lucerne decided to lift a five-century long ban on dancing on Christian holidays. A heated debate in parliament ended with 62 votes in favour of lifting the ban and 46 against.

To the socialists, the ban seemed “old-fashioned” whereas the Swiss People Party (SVP) felt “359 days of dancing was enough” and the restrictions were justified out of “respect to Christian culture.”

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RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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