Category Archives: Switzerland

Hillary Clinton criticises suppression of religious freedom in Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole. “Several European countries have placed harsh restrictions on religious expression,” Clinton said, without elaborating as she unveiled the State Department’s report on international religious freedom for the last year.

Her assistant secretary for human rights, Michael Posner, cited France’s ban on wearing the niqab and other face coverings in public places and a Swiss motion passed last year that bans building new minarets. “We have gone to court in the United States to enforce the right of Muslim women and girls to wear a burqa, and on the streets, in schools, et cetera,” said Posner. “That’s our position. It’s a position we articulate when we talk to our European friends.”

AFP, 17 November 2010

Phyllis Chesler will be disappointed.

See also “Europe cited in US religious freedoms report”, Reuters, 17 November 2010

The US State Department 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom can be consulted here.

Swiss canton rejects veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The government of Solothurn does not want a cantonal initiative against the burqa or niqab. It has rejected the request by a member of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, saying the phenomenon is too insignificant in Switzerland and in the canton. The canton of Aargau has already filed an initiative with Bern for a cantonal intiative to prohibit the Islamic veil.

WRS, 6 October 2010

Rise of European far right fuels ‘new racism’ of religious victimisation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A rise in right-wing radicalism is fuelling the spread of xenophobia and extremist attitudes towards religious minorities in Europe, says Minority Rights Group International.

MRG’s flagship annual State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples report, themed for 2010 on religious minorities, was launched in Budapest, Hungary. It suggests that victimisation against religious groups is in many respects the “new racism”.

The report says that ultra right-wing parties, aiming to establish themselves in mainstream political arenas in Europe, justify their anti-immigration, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric by stoking fears that religious minorities and immigrants are a threat to modern societies.

“Successes in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, and at the national parliamentary level, have allowed these populist right-wing parties to shift formerly far-right ideas, on immigration for example, into the mainstream,” says Carl Soderbergh, MRG’s Director of Policy and Communications.

The report details a sharp rise in Islamophobia in Europe in 2009.

In May 2009, ultra right-wing groups held an “anti-Islam” rally to oppose the building of a large new mosque in Cologne, Germany. When the authorities in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen approved the country’s first purpose-built mosque, the extreme-right Danish People’s Party launched an anti-mosque campaign in September.

Following a campaign by the ultra-conservative Swiss People’s Party, a sizeable majority of Switzerland’s cantons backed a referendum in November 2009, which proposed a ban on the building of new minarets in mosques.

“MRG is deeply concerned about the infringement of religious freedom that the Swiss ban on minarets, and other European Islamophobic initiatives, supposes for the Muslim community. We urge European authorities to abide by their obligations under international law and protect their populations’ freedom to practice their religion and be free from discrimination,” added Soderbergh.

Ekklesia, 5 July 2010

See also ENGAGE, 2 July 2010

57 per cent of Swiss favour ban on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A majority of Swiss citizens are in favour of banning the wearing of the burqa, a poll released on Sunday found. According to Swiss television, 57.6% of those interviewed for the survey favoured outlawing the Islamic garb for women which covers the entire body.

Last year, a nationwide Swiss referendum prompted criticism across Europe as nearly 58% of Swiss citizens had voted in favour of a law to ban building new minarets across the country. In Sunday’s poll, 26.5% were against banning the burqa, while 15.9% remained undecided.

The poll was conducted for the German-language SonntagsBlick newspaper, interviewing a total of 502 people aged 14-59, from all regions of Switzerland.

The local council in Aargau, a canton (state) in the north of Switzerland along the German border, voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to work on an initiative to make wearing the burqa in public places illegal across the country. Most major parties backed the move.

News 24, 23 May 2010

Swiss council votes for ban on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Swiss canton on Tuesday passed legislation preparing the groundwork for a possible ban on the Islamic burqa.

The local council in Aargau, a canton (state) in the north of Switzerland along the German border, voted overwhelmingly to work on a state initiative to make wearing the burqa in public places illegal. Most major parties backed the move.

Pushing the motion forward, the centrist and right wing parties in favour said the garment was a “symbol of male dominance over women,” according to the Swiss news agency SDA.The parties also said the full body veil prevents the integration of migrants into Swiss society.

The Socialist party objected to locally legislating on the matter, but members noted that they had negative views on the burqa, citing feminist concerns. The Green party was opposed, saying the proposal was “hysterics” and a scare-mongering tactic.

It is estimated that less than 100 Muslim women across Switzerland wear the burqa, a full body and face covering.

Earth Times, 4 May 2010

See also WRS, 4 May 2010

Head of Swiss Migration Office says Muslim converts are potential terrorists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alard du Bois-ReymondSome young Swiss converts to Islam are a potential threat to the country’s security, according to the head of the Migration Office.

Alard du Bois-Reymond was speaking about the Central Islamic Council (IZRS), founded by young converts in the western town of Biel. The group strongly denies his assertion.

Du Bois-Reymond told the German-language newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that such converts include people who want a “radically different society” and pointed to examples in Britain and Germany where such demands had provided “fertile ground for potential terrorists”.

Swissinfo, 17 April 2010

But don’t get the idea that du Bois-Reymond is simply anti-Muslim. He also believes that asylum seekers from Nigeria have come to Switzerland in order to carry out criminal activities.

UN Human Rights Council to condemn Swiss ban on minarets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The United Nations Council of Human Rights is intended to condemn a move by Switzerland to impose a ban on the construction of new minarets in the Alpine nation, characterizing the measure as “Islamophobic.”

A draft resolution proposed by the Muslim states for consideration in the 47-member council, “strongly condemns … the ban on construction of minarets of mosques and other recent discriminatory measures,” AFP said.

Such actions are “manifestations of Islamophobia that stand in sharp contradiction to international human rights obligations concerning freedoms of religion, belief, conscience and expression.” They “fuel discrimination, extremism, and misperception leading to polarization and fragmentation with dangerous unintended and unforeseen consequences,” cautioned the draft resolution.

The draft resolution is to be put to the Council for adoption by the end of the month.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has described the ban as a “deeply discriminatory, deeply divisive and a thoroughly unfortunate step for Switzerland to take.”

Press TV, 10 March 2010

Update:  See also “UN resolution on minaret ban contested”, Swissinfo, 11 March 2010

Swiss basketball player fails to overturn headscarf ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sura Al-ShawkA Swiss basketball player has failed in her bid to have a court overturn a headscarf ban when she plays in league games.

A local court in the canton of Lucerne said in a ruling published Wednesday that the ban doesn’t breach the rights of the player, who is Muslim.

Sura Al-Shawk, a 19-year-old Swiss citizen of Iraqi origin who plays for STV Luzern, sought permission from the Swiss basketball association to wear a scarf. ProBasket said in August she can’t because it could increase the risk of injury and the sport has to be religiously neutral.

ProBasket said it followed the rules of FIBA, basketball’s world governing body.

Associated Press, 27 January 2010

Chimney pot minaret defies Swiss vote

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Chimney pot minaretA Swiss shoe-shop owner has built a mock minaret on the top of his warehouse in defiance of a ban on the Muslim architecture.

Guillaume Morand extended a chimney, gave it the form of a minaret and sprayed it in gold paint to protest against a constitutional amendment approved in a nationwide referendum last month.

“It was scandalous that the Swiss voted for the ban,” said Mr Morand, 46, who owns the Pomp It Up chain of shoe stores. “Now we [the Swiss] have the support of all the far-right parties across Europe. This is shameful.”

The tower, made of plastic and wood above his warehouse near Lausanne, is a “message of peace and tolerance” designed to last for two years before it rots, he said – but there are no plans for it to be used to summon Muslims to prayer. “Our minaret is pretty,” he said. “You could say I’m proud of it and I’m happy that people are talking about it.”

His neighbours are less enthusiastic and have showered him with racist insults since the minaret appeared this week, he said. One telephoned a threat to demolish the structure.

Sunday Times, 13 December 2009

Sarkozy defends Switzerland minaret ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nicolas Sarkozy today voiced sympathy for Switzerland’s controversial decision to ban the building of Muslim minarets, calling on religious practitioners to avoid “ostentation” and “provocation” for fear of upsetting others.

The French president said he was surprised by the widespread criticism of the outcome of last week’s referendum in Switzerland when 57% voted to proscribe the building of new minarets in a country that has four, and is home to 400,000 Muslims.

Sarkozy’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, promptly denounced the Swiss decision last week, saying he was shocked and scandalised and calling for the ban to be reversed.

But writing in the Le Monde newspaper, Sarkozy defended the Swiss in arguing for the necessity of the contentious debate on national identity he has sponsored in France.

“How can you not be amazed at the reaction that this decision has produced in certain media and political circles in our own country,” Sarkozy said. “Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France.”

Guardian, 8 December 2009