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| Islamophobia in Switzerland plays upon the fears of the ignorant. The right wing Swiss People's Party says that minarets are political symobols. (EPA) |
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Exit
polls from a national vote in Switzerland suggest that the country will
accept a call by far-right parties for a ban on the construction of
minarets on mosques, Swiss public television has reported.
Projections by the state owned television channel DRS indicated that
59 per cent of those who voted in Sunday's poll were in favour of the
ban.
Claude
Longchamp, leader of the gfs.bern polling institute, said the
projections also forecast support for the ban by more than half of
Switzerland's 26 cantons, meaning it will become a constitutional
amendment.
Final results from the referendum, which was backed by the Swiss
People's Party - the largest political party in the country - are
expected at about 1600 GMT on Sunday.
Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Bern, the Swiss
capital, said: "There is concern in Switzerland undoubtedly about what
is being seen as the spread of radical Islam, but the Muslim community
here has always been regarded as fairly moderate.
"They were saying that they wanted to see this proposal defeated, so
I'm sure it is a real shock to them that at the moment we are seeing
that most of the people here have voted in favour of [the ban]."
(See Alan Fishers report, "Behind the Swiss minaret vote".)
'Anti-Islamic hate'
Supporters of the proposed ban say minarets represent the growth of
an alien ideology and legal system that have no place in the Swiss
democracy.
"Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries
separating the pure and impure - we don't have that in Switzerland, and
we do not want to introduce it," Ulrich Schlueer, co-president of the
Initiative Committee to ban minarets, said.
"Therefore, there's no room for minarets in Switzerland."
But Switzerland's Muslims have said that the referendum is fuelling anti-Islamic feeling in the country.
"The
initiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that
is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social
integration in a negative way," Taner Hatipoglu, the president of the
Federation of Islamic Organisations in Zurich, said.
"We
are frightened, and if the atmosphere continues to be like this and if
the anti-Islamic hate increases, then the Muslims indeed will not feel
safe anymore. This of course is very unpleasant."
About 400,000 Muslims live in Switzerland - whose population is
just under eight million. Most Muslim citizens are immigrants from the
former Yugoslavia and Turkey.
Although Islam is the country's second largest religion after
Christianity, there are only four mosques with minarets in the whole
country.
'Know your place'
Posters have appeared in many Swiss cities showing a dark, almost
menacing figure of a woman, shrouded from head to foot in a black
burka. Behind her is the Swiss flag, shaped like a map of the country,
with black minarets shooting up out of it like missiles.
The
cities of Basel, Lausanne and Fribourg banned the billboards, saying
they painted a "racist, disrespectful and dangerous image" of Islam.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee called the posters
discriminatory and said Switzerland would violate international law if
it bans minarets.
Al Jazeera's Fisher said that there was a political message behind Sunday's referendum.
"The reality is, as was described to me by a Swiss resident who is
not a Swiss citizen, this is the right-wing Swiss People's Party
sending out a message to Muslims: 'Know your place in Switzerland'," he
said.
"They believe, the right-wing People's Party, that if the Muslims
get their mosques and their minarets it will follow on that they will
want, perhaps, separate schooling and there could be a campaign to turn
Switzerland, of all places, into a place that practices Sharia."
The
Swiss government and business leaders have opposed a minaret ban,
saying it would be harmful to the country's image abroad and disastrous
for the Swiss economy.
The Swiss People's Party forced the
referendum after collecting 100,000 signatures within 18 months from
eligible voters supporting the motion.
Al Jazeera
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