Just because they're more secular doesn't negate the fact that they're a more concentrated ethnic group in Switzerland than they are here. I'd reckon that the strength of their faith is less the issue, so much as it is that they have a different faith/ethnicity to begin with. I think we're on the same page with this one.
Now, take a look at the minority underclasses in the US. Yes, we are (for damn good reason) not allowed to legislate specifically against other races. That hasn't stopped race-based legislation, or at least race-based enforcement; whether targeting activities mostly done by minorities or simply targeting minorities for crimes, I'm hard pressed to say that either is not a factor in our prison population being mostly Black and Latino. I recall a fairly recent court case between the DEA and one of its former officers that found that the DEA was targeting minorities with a far greater frequency than they were targeting whites. (After some Googling I can't find the exact case, and after some searching the apartment I can't find the PODLR pamphlet from the talk I went to a couple weeks ago, so I can't even look up the guy's name either. So take this detail as salty as you'd like.)
Hell, look at the immigration reform movement in the US, and tell me that most of that isn't a bunch of poor (economically) whites with a chip on their shoulder about Latinos.
We have our own issues with race--the races that US racists come into contact with frequently. If the Muslim (secular, non-secular, what have you) population was equivalent to the US's Latino or Black population, do you really think we wouldn't be seeing a similar racist backlash?
Probably not legislatively, no, but that's about the only point I'd be willing to give the US on this note. And, really, THAT'S only been taboo for some 50 years. You know, after a huge social movement that had to squelch the acceptance of litigated racism, which hopefully Switzerland will get to in due course.
As for how outsiders should view it? Certainly, we can and should condemn it. I agree. I agree completely.
Comments like this, though:
And I thought America had problems with Muslims. Wooooooow. Makes me wanna puke, really.
America doesn't have a fraction of the problems Europe does with Muslims. This is still really pathetic.
are fucking short-sighted and need to be called out for the utter lack of perspective they show. I suppose I blew the number of people espousing this sentiment out of proportion in my mind, but I stand by my words. America's just as de-facto racist as Switzerland, we're just less open and more condescending about it.
EDITS: Just ignore 'em. Mostly cleaning up poor word choices, grammar, etc.