Switzerland faces backlash over 'no minarets' vote

Switzerland was at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population today after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets.

Yesterday’s surprise vote that bans the iconic mosque towers was condemned by Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad as biased and anti-Islamic.

Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland’s international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.

“It’s a sad day for freedom of religion,” said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of British youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation.

“A constitutional amendment that’s targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent.”

He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.

London-based 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 Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights,” said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was “grief and deep disappointment”.

About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying “That is not my Switzerland” placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.

“We’re sorry,” said another sign and a young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, “Swiss passport for sale.”

The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party labelled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5% by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons, or states, opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.

Muslims comprise about 6% of Switzerland’s 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practises their religion, the government says.

The country’s four standing minarets, which will not be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.

The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from human rights groups with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully-veiled woman.

Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country “because Muslims don’t just practise religion”.

“The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls,” the sponsors said.

Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries.

There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on headscarves for Muslim women teaching in state schools and there have been protests over mosques and minaret projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia.

But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country’s largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.

It said that “Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before”.

It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.