Swiss approve ban on islamic minarets

Swiss voters have approved a move to ban the construction of minarets by 57.5 to 42.5% majority in a vote on a right-wing initiative that labelled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam.

Today’s vote tapped anxieties about Muslims and their growing European population that have been rippling through Europe in recent years, ranging from French fears of women in body veils to Dutch alarm over the murder by a Muslim fanatic of a filmmaker who made a documentary that criticised Islam.