News Archive
Swiss nation says ‘Yes’ to minaret ban
Released on 30/11/2009
A 57.5% majority of Swiss voters said ‘Yes’ on the 29th November referendum on banning the building of minarets.
As well as the popular majority, 22 out of 26 cantons, or districts, voted in favour of the ban. A reported 53% of voters turned out.
The referendum is the result of a campaign by members of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union, who believe that minarets – traditional towers on mosques used to call Muslims to prayer – are a symbol of aggressive Islamisation.
The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland’s image, particularly in the Muslim world.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said: “Concerns about Islamic fundamentalism have to be taken seriously. However, a ban on the construction of new minarets is not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies.”
She told Swiss Muslims that the decision was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture”.
Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims among a population of approximately 7.8 million. Four mosques have minarets.
Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.
The controversy started in 2005 when a Turkish cultural association obtained permission to build a six-metre-high minaret on an Islamic community building in Wangen bei Olten, in the east of the country. There was strong local opposition to the plans but the case went all the way to the Federal Supreme Court, which upheld the original application. That minaret (pictured) was built in July 2009.
Promoters of the ban say the minaret is a symbol of an Islamic ambition for political domination and quote a 1997 speech by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he is reported to have said: “Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers. This holy army guards my religion.”
Church groups, human-rights groups, mainstream media and a powerful business lobby all campaigned for a ‘no’ vote, saying the ban would incite hatred. The Geneva mosque was vandalised three times during the campaign.
The result came as a surprise. A poll in late October recorded 53% of people saying they would vote against it, 34% of people in favour of it and 13% undecided.
