“Police in the Swiss city of Schaffhausen have defended their decision to fine a man who used the words ‘Allahu akbar’ in public.”

Known only as Orhan E. in the Swiss media, the man argued:

“I was born here [in Switzerland] and have never experienced anything like this. We live in a free country with religious freedom. Arbitrary police behaviour is not acceptable.”

Maybe so, and as much as this may seem to some to be a violation of religious freedom, it isn’t. Orhan E. knows full well that jihad attacks by Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” have murdered people and destroyed lives. It is a pity Orhan E. was fined if he was being honest when he said that “he used the Islamic phrase ‘Allahu akbar’, which literally means ‘God is [the] greatest’, to express his amazement after spotting a friend of his near Schaffhausen’s goods train depot.” On the other hand, he must also be aware of the real meaning of “Allahu akbar”:

The actual meaning is “Allah is greater,” meaning Allah Is Greater Than Your God or Government…It is the aggressive declaration that Allah and Islam are dominant over every other form of government, religion, law or ethic, which is why Islamic jihadists in the midst of killing infidels so often shout it.

In the West, because of the behavior of Muslims, this phrase carries a threat and a menace that other religious expressions, Islamic and non-Islamic, simply do not carry, so Orhan E.’s fining is not about freedom to practice or express one’s faith at all. Now that terror has been struck into the hearts of disbelievers by jihadists screaming “Allahu akbar,” many people are rightly nervous about this phrase, and it isn’t “Islamophobic” to say so. It is not non-Muslims, but Muslims who have made the words “Allahu akbar” worse than shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

“At the time, there was a possibility that people could have become afraid or shocked,” a media spokesperson for the force, Patrick Caprez, told local daily Schaffhauser Nachrichten. The phrase ‘Allahu akbar’ has often been used by terrorists before carrying out attacks. Schaffhausen security chief Romeo Bettini also backed the force’s decision to fine the man.

“Man fined 210 Swiss francs for saying ‘Allahu akbar'”, The Local, January 10, 2019: