A small victory over Islam. Let the whining begin.
Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban onminarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers ina surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.
Muslimgroups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased andanti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland’sinternational standing and could damage relations with Muslim nationsand wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.
“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.”
About300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the squareoutside parliament, holding up signs saying, “That is not mySwitzerland,” placing candles in front of a model of a minaret andmaking another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.
“We’re sorry,” said another sign. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, “Swiss passport for sale.”
The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People’s Partylabeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that couldone day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiativewas approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Onlyfour of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting thedouble approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.
Muslimscomprise about 6 percent of Switzerland’s 7.5 million people. Many arerefugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10actively practices their religion, the government says.
Thecountry’s four standing minarets, which won’t be affected by the ban,do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their ownbuildings.
The sponsors of the initiativeprovoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights groupwith campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles fromthe Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growingMuslim population was straining the country “because Muslims don’t justpractice religion.”
“The minaret is a sign ofpolitical power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by theburqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls,”the sponsors said. They said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogancompared mosques to Islam’s military barracks and called “the minaretsour bayonets.” Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem manyyears before he became prime minister.
Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europein recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There havebeen French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as theburqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.
But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country’s largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.
“It’s a sad day for freedom of religion,” said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. “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.
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.
Theseven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken outstrongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted thevote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.
It said that “Muslims in Switzerlandare able to practice their religion alone or in community with others,and live according to their beliefs just as before.” It took theunusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German,French, Italian and English.
Sunday’s resultsstood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, thatshowed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the votethat they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that theyopposed the ban because they didn’t want to appear intolerant.
“The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyonewanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations toMuslims and their social integration in a negative way,” said TanerHatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. “Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore.”
The People’s Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previousyears against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheepkicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown handsgrabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.
Geneva’s mainmosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paintat the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drovethrough the area imitating a muezzin’s call to prayer, and vandalsdamaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.