Didn't the Germans ban construction of new Synagogues before WW2?

Multicultural Fail.

This really isn't especially surprising, though. The Europeans have a lot of difficulty dealing with racial and religious differences that we don't have in the states. This may sound counter intuitive, but its definitely true. Until recently, it was only America that had a sizable minority population; European nations were mostly homogeneous. Demographic changes in Europe have meant that now there are sizable minorities in many European countries; this is a new phenomenon, and as this recent referendum shows, the Europeans aren't handling it superbly. Even the Swiss, who are world renowned for their openness and tolerance, passed a bill that accomplishes literally nothing other than to inflame tensions and discriminate against one group of people.