A year after Swiss voters approved a ban on the building of minarets, both pro and contra groups are launching new campaigns to put the issue back on the political agenda.
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An anti-minaret movement led by Ulrich Schlüer of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party presented a manifesto on Monday against the Islamisation of Switzerland.
The document underlines Switzerland’s Christian foundations and aims to prevent the creation of a parallel society inspired by Islamic sharia law.
Schlüer said the group had waited a year in vain for the government to implement the minaret ban. A sign of the lack of progress was the green light canton Bern gave in September to the building of a minaret in the town of Langenthal, the politician said.
The Bern authorities argued at the time that planning permission was originally granted months before the controversial vote.
Also on Monday, an Islamic group based in Bern said it was launching an initiative to lift the minaret ban.
The Islamic Central Council – which represents 13 Islamic organisations with 1,700 members – said the aim of the initiative was to restore “the constitutional right of equality of all citizens regardless of their religious faith”.
The council said it would submit a text to the federal chancellery in January for initial examination. If the group decides to go ahead, it will have to collect 100,000 signatures within 18 months in order to force a nationwide vote.
More than 300,000 Muslims reside in Switzerland. When it is completed, the Langenthal minaret will be the fifth in the country.
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Some religions are more welcome than others
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For while some non-native religions have proved easy bedfellows for the Swiss, others – notably Islam – have found it more difficult to be accepted. So much so in the case of Islam that Swiss Muslims currently face the prospect of seeing the construction of minarets put to a nationwide vote. The rightwing campaign to…
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Twelve months after a nationwide vote in favour of banning the construction of minarets, the town’s mayor is rather unhappy about the continuing publicity while the business community appears to ignore the controversy. The row over the local minaret has not gone away. It had already received planning permission from the town before the vote…
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H.A. Hellyer, who this week spoke at a discussion held by the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies at Neuchâtel University, tells swissinfo.ch he is more concerned by the “festering discontent” that led to the ban than the ban itself. His comments come as Switzerland tries to untangle a 20-month diplomatic stand-off with Libya,…
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For many people, November 29, 2009 came as a shock, when a majority of voters accepted the new legislation, and the vote has been seen as a “wake-up” call. “People are beginning to speak about Islam in Switzerland, which wasn’t really the case before,” said Saïda Keller-Messahli, president of the Forum for a Progressive Islam.…
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With banners saying “This is not my Switzerland” some Swiss took to the street to protest against a ban on minarets approved at the polls. Members of the Muslim community expressed their disappointment and incomprehension. (SF-TSR/swissinfo.ch 30.11.2009)
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