Excerpt:
The Islamic Shura Council in Switzerland has expressed regret and worry over the rise of Islamophobia in the country, taking the form of a fierce media campaign against it after it announced its annual conference themed "Islam is peace." The conference will not be cancelled but instead will be held Istanbul, Turkey, May 6-8, because of Islamophobia that has poisoned the social atmosphere in the country, chairman Abdullah Nicolas Blancho told a press conference in Zurich, northeast, Friday.
Suspicions are rising on the presence of a social will that can secure the application of the provisions of the Swiss Constitution that guarantee the basic rights of all people, irrespective of faith or ethnicity, Blancho, a Swiss who converted to Islam, added.
He referred to worrying signals that the society might restrict such basic rights when the matter is related to Islam and Muslims, amid a severe fall in the rate of toleration with both.