The Swiss will decide this weekend whether to ban minarets on mosques in what is in effect the first direct vote in a European country on Islam and the practices of Muslims.
The controversial referendum tomorrow, accompanied by a campaign for prohibition and denounced as racist and in violation of human rights, is the latest tussle in Europe over the limits of multiculturalism and immigrant lifestyles.
Pushed by anti-immigrant rightwing populists, it has triggered months of debate in a country that uses direct democracy for single-issue politics. The referendum has turned into much more than a vote on architecture and urban planning.
“The minaret has got nothing to do with religion. It’s a symbol of political power, a prelude to the introduction of Shariah law,” said Ulrich Schluer, of the Swiss People’s Part (SPP), an architect of the campaign.
Two years ago the SPP became the strongest party in Switzerland with an anti-immigrant election campaign that featured posters of three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a red and white Swiss flag. UN experts and human rights activists condemned the campaign as racist.
This time the SPP has plastered the country with posters showing the same flag as a base for several black minarets, portrayed as missiles, alongside a woman clad in a black burqa. Church leaders, the Jewish community and Muslim leaders have all opposed the campaign.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said that a vote in favor of a ban risked turning Switzerland into “a target for Islamic terrorism.”
The city of Basel and other towns have proscribed the posters.
UN human rights experts have said the proposed ban violates freedom of religion and liberty. Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf agreed, saying that it would breach anti-discrimination laws and rights to free religious observance, raising the question of why the campaign has been allowed.
The anti-immigrant lobby has led the campaign, but it has been joined by some secularist leftists and liberals fiercely critical of Islam. Julia Onken, a prominent feminist and psychologist and bestselling author of self-help books, last week called on women to vote for the ban.
“Mosques are male houses, minarets are male power symbols,” she said. “The building of minarets is also a visible signal of the state’s acceptance of the oppression of women.”
There are about 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland, 5 percent of the population. Most are immigrants from the Balkan regions of Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and are not practicing Muslim.
Of about 150 mosques or Islamic prayer houses in Switzerland, only four have minarets.
“And we don’t want any more,” Schluer said. “There’s no sense in banning them once you’ve got hundreds. What’s the point in waiting for that?”
Prohibitionists and prominent SPP officials argue that the four minarets are the thin end of the wedge, to be followed by Shariah law, honor killings, oppression of women and stoning.
Opinion polls indicate the anti-minaret movement will lose tomorrow, but a sizable minority — at least one-third of voters — could support the call for a ban. The government, the political mainstream and the powerful business lobbies all oppose the ban for reasons of tolerance, trade prospects and fears of Muslim radicalization and a backlash.
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