In a surprise vote on Sunday, the Swiss people moved to ban the construction of minarets, the tall spires traditionally attached to mosques. The vote has sparked accusations of “Islamophobia” as well as boycott fears, along with renewed debate about the challenges of Muslim assimilation in the West.
The result – 57.5 percent of voters favored the ban – went against earlier opinion polls showing support at below 35 percent. Sunday’s “yes” vote was also supported by 22 out of the country’s 26 cantons (provinces), meeting the legal requirement that a majority of cantons must back a referendum proposal for it to pass.
The outcome drew dismay from the government, which actively opposed the minaret ban, saying it said would violate international human rights norms and upset ties with Muslim countries.
“The government is disappointed that it was not possible to convince voters to reject the initiative,” Economics Minister Doris Leuthard told a press conference in Bern.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf at the same briefing acknowledged that the vote reflected public “concerns that Islamic fundamentalist ideas could lead to the establishment of parallel societies.” She said she expected appeals would be filed before the European Court of Human Rights.
The Federal Council – Switzerland’s executive branch – said in a statement it respected the decision, which means the constitution will be amended to add the line, “the building of minarets is prohibited.” It stressed that mosques may still be built, and that four existing minarets will remain.
The conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) collected more than the required 100,000 signatures within an 18-month period for Sunday’s vote to be held.
Campaigners argued that minarets were a “symbol of political power” in a historically Christian country, and they linked minarets to controversial aspects of Islam, including creeping radicalism, forced marriages, the wearing head coverings and the introduction of shari’a.
Some 4 to 5 percent of Switzerland’s 7.7 million people are Muslims, with most originating from the Balkans – they fled wars there during the 1990s – and from Turkey. (Catholics account for about 42 percent of the Swiss population and Protestants 35 percent).
Many experts say minarets are not a theological requirement in Islam. Not all mosques have one, and even in some that do, the call to prayer is made from inside the mosque, not the minaret.
Still, the government, parliament, legal and human rights groups and mainstream churches – “the entire establishment,” in the words of SVP campaigner Oskar Freysinger – all opposed the call to ban the minarets.
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) ambassador in Geneva, Babacar Ba, voiced concern that the vote result would be “a gift to extremism.” He urged Swiss authorities to work closely with the OIC and Islamic governments to address the rise of Islamophobia in Europe.
Boycott fears
Some Swiss politicians voiced fear about a Muslim boycott of Swiss products.
Arab-Swiss Chamber of Commerce figures show exports to the Arab world were worth more than $7 billion in 2007 while imports exceeded $3 billion. Between 2006 and last year, Swiss exports to Saudi Arabia rose by 26.5 percent, according to the Swiss foreign ministry.
Government figures show Switzerland sold $767 million worth of weaponry in 2008, with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia the biggest non-European customers.
The small Alpine nation has taken pains to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with OIC countries, and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, who was criticized by conservatives last year for wearing a headscarf during a visit to Iran, said during the referendum campaign that the minaret issue could cause problems.
Switzerland already faces difficulties in relations with a major oil supplier, Libya, over a dispute arising from the 2008 arrest of one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons and his wife, accused of assaulting household staff members at a Geneva hotel.
Despite a public apology by the Swiss president last summer, Libya continues to restrict air links and to detain two Swiss businessmen.
The news site swissinfo ran an unscientific poll asking whether in the light of the referendum vote a boycott of Swiss products would be justified. “No” was winning by a 72-28 percent margin late Sunday.
A subsequent poll, asking “Do you think there will be negative reactions from abroad to minaret ban?” the “no” vote led by a much slimmer margin, 58-42.
Denmark and the Netherlands have in recent years faced boycotts from some Muslim countries, following the publication by Danish newspapers of cartoons satirizing Mohammed, and the release by a Dutch lawmaker of a documentary linking the Qur’an to terrorism and extremism.
Both the Danish and Dutch governments tried to distance themselves from controversial actions taken by their citizens. On Monday, the Swiss foreign ministry Web site carried a statement about the referendum, translated into Arabic.
‘Cut the umbilical cord’
The Swiss vote also resonated in Britain, where extension of a mosque in a London suburb, complete with a tall minaret, has drawn protests from anti-"Islamization” activists.
Britain’s leading Muslim youth organization, the Ramadhan Foundation, responded to the Swiss vote by calling on believers of all faiths to “stand united against this evil.”
Its chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, called the planned constitutional change “another example of the modern day oppression Muslims are subjected to in Europe.”
But a U.K.-based Islamic cleric took a different view, saying the Swiss decision, although “needlessly retrogressive and xenophobic,” should also prompt introspection by Muslims rather than “a convenient victim mentality.”
“Muslims in Europe need to confront the toxic radicalism of their faith that is blindly imported from the reactionary Middle East and the Indian sub-continent,” Dr. Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, said in an emailed response to queries.
He said the Swiss decision did not curtail Muslims’ right to freedom of religion, as there was “no sound theological reason why Islamic houses of worship, particularly in the West, must include such towering edifices.”
Swiss Muslims should “give up the antiquated cultural baggage of their ancestral homelands” and implement “a vibrant and valid brand of Islam that is rooted in and relevant to the time and place where they live,” Hargey argued.
The referendum provided “the perfect opportunity to cut the foreign umbilical cord and re-connect with their fellow citizens at home.”
British author and commentator Gerald Warner said that, contrary to proclamations that Switzerland would now have pariah status, “there is significantly more respect for Switzerland around the world after the referendum than there was before.”
“The news that the electorate in one European country has had the resolution to defy its political class and refuse to roll over and indulge a politically correct minority will be an inspiration to other electorates,” he wrote on the Daily Telegraph blog.
Last month a United Nations human rights body questioned Swiss authorities on the referendum, with one Tunisian member asking whether the initiative should not have been “declared inadmissible” under Switzerland’s constitution.