2009 Swiss minaret referendum
The federal popular initiative "against the construction of minarets" was a successful
This referendum originates from action on 1 May 2007, when a group of right of centre politicians, mainly from the Swiss People's Party and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland, the Egerkinger Komittee ("Egerkingen Committee") launched a federal popular initiative that sought a constitutional ban on minarets. The minaret at the mosque of the local Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten was the initial motivation for the initiative.
The Swiss government recommended that the proposed amendment be rejected as inconsistent with the basic principles of the constitution.[3] However, after the results were tabulated, the government immediately announced that the ban was in effect.[4]
As of the date of the 2009 vote, there were four minarets in Switzerland, attached to mosques in Zürich, Geneva, Winterthur and Wangen bei Olten. These existing minarets were not affected by the ban, as they had already been constructed.
Background
Legal dispute
The Swiss minaret controversy began in a small municipality in the northern part of Switzerland in 2005. The contention involved the Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten, which applied for a construction permit to erect a 6-metre-high minaret on the roof of its Islamic community centre. The project faced opposition from surrounding residents, who had formed a group to prevent the tower's erection. The Turkish association claimed that the building authorities improperly and arbitrarily delayed its building application. They also believed that the members of the local opposition group were motivated by religious bias. The Communal Building and Planning Commission rejected the association's application. The applicants appealed to the Building and Justice Department, which reverted the decision and remanded. As a consequence of that decision, local residents (who were members of the group mentioned) and the commune of Wangen brought the case before the Administrative Court of the Canton of Solothurn, but failed with their claims. On appeal the Federal Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court. The 6-metre (20 ft)-high minaret was erected in July 2009.[5]
Initial attempts at popular initiatives
From 2006 until 2008, members of the
Referendum
In 2007, in response to the political defeats described above, the Egerkinger committee launched a federal popular initiative against minarets. The committee's proposed amendment to article 72 of the Swiss Federal Constitution read: "The building of minarets is prohibited."[7]
In Switzerland, federal popular initiatives are not subject to judicial review, as they amend the federal constitution (whereas cantonal initiatives can be challenged in court for violating federal law). Federal initiatives are still bound by international law (jus cogens), however.[8] Promoters of popular initiatives have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures.[9] If they succeed, the initiative is put before the Swiss citizenry in a national vote. Both federal and cantonal initiatives are common in Switzerland, resulting in many referendum votes each year.
Support
Egerkinger committee
The Egerkinger committee was made up of members of the
Poster campaign
-
First poster (in German); showing minarets on a Swiss flag and a woman wearing an abaya and niqab. The text reads, "Stop", "Yes to the minaret ban".
-
Second poster (in French); after some municipalities refused to allow posting of the original version on public ground, the second poster reads "Censorship, one more reason to say yes to the minaret ban".
The committee's campaign featured posters featuring a drawing of a Muslim woman in an
Feminists
The British newspaper The Times cited support of the minaret ban from "radical feminists" who opposed the oppression of women in Islamic societies.[22] Among those named were the notable Dutch feminist and former politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who in December gave her support to the ban with an article entitled "Swiss ban on minarets was a vote for tolerance and inclusion".[23] The Times further reported that in pre-election polling, Swiss women supported the ban by a greater percentage than Swiss men.
Society of St Pius X
The traditionalist
the confusion maintained by certain Vatican II Council authorities between tolerating a person, whatever his religion and tolerating an ideology that is incompatible with Christian tradition.[24]
and explaining its support of the ban:
The Islamic doctrine cannot be accepted when you know what it is all about. How can one expect to condone the propagation of an ideology that encourages husbands to beat their wives, the "believer" to murder the "infidel", a justice that uses body mutilation as punishment, and pushes to reject Jews and Christians?[24]
Opposition
The Swiss Government
On 28 August 2008 the
Parliament
The
Non-governmental organisations
The
Religious organisations
The
Individual legal experts
Sami Aldeeb positioned himself for ban on the erection of minarets in Switzerland, since in his opinion the constitution allows prayer, but not shouting.[41]
Result
In a referendum on 29 November 2009, the amendment, which needed a
At the district level, not including Basel-City and Geneva (which are not divided into districts), the initiative gained a majority of the vote in 132 of the 148 districts:
- Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut;
- Boudry, La Chaux-de-Fonds;
- Sarine;
- canton of Jura: Delémont, Franches-Montagnes;
- Meilen;
- canton of Bern: Bern;
- canton of Solothurn: Solothurn.[43]
The cities of Zürich and Bern, along with Geneva and Basel, also showed a slight majority opposed to the ban. The canton of Zürich as a whole, however, voted 52% in support of it. The highest percentage of votes in favour of the ban were counted in Appenzell Innerrhoden (71%) followed by Glarus (69%), Ticino (68%) and Thurgau (68%).
An independent study carried out by the political scientists Markus Freitag (University of Konstanz), Thomas Milic and Adrian Vatter (University of Bern) noted a good level of knowledge among voters.[44] Contrary to what had been previously thought, the surveys before the referendum did not influence voters, as it is hard to do so with people who are accustomed to them.[44] Those who voted did so according to their political convictions, and by taking into account the different arguments.[44] The study also attributed the result to the fact that supporters of the ban overwhelmingly turned out to vote in the referendum.[44]
Aftermath of the referendum and implementation of the ban
There was a claim that the ban on new minarets might be put to the test in the case of a pending project to build a minaret for a mosque in
Whether the Langenthal mosque would be affected would depend on the details of the eventual implementation. According to Alexander Ruch, professor of building law at ETH Zurich, there was, at that point, no official definition of the term "minaret", leaving open the handling of hypothetical cases, such as the chimney of a factory building that is converted into a mosque.[47] In the case of the Langenthal minaret, it was even argued that the planned structure was a minaret-like tower and not a minaret. Calls to prayer had been a frequent argument against permitting new minarets, and the planned tower in Langenthal could not be used for that purpose.[48] In the case of the Islamic center in
The
Several applications to the European Court of Human Rights were rejected in 2011 on the grounds that the applicants were not affected parties, as they did not intend to build minarets.[53]
International reactions
The ban sparked reactions from governments and political parties throughout of the world.[54]
Official reactions of governments and international bodies
- Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). OIC representative Babacar Ba said that the resolution was a "way to reaffirm once again our condemnation of the decision to ban construction of minarets in Switzerland." The resolution was opposed, mostly by Western nations, but it gained a majority due to the votes of Muslim nations, in addition to the support of other countries such as Cuba and China.[55] Eight states abstained. US ambassador Eileen Donahoe criticised the resolution as an "instrument of division" and an "ineffective way to address" concerns about discrimination.[56] The ban was also mentioned by the council's special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in his 2010 report to the United Nations General Assembly.[57]
- France – Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the ban, calling it "an expression of intolerance", and said it amounted to "religious oppression", hoping Switzerland would reverse its decision.[58]
- Sweden – Sweden condemned the ban, with foreign minister Carl Bildt stating that "It's an expression of quite a bit of prejudice and maybe even fear, but it is clear that it is a negative signal in every way, there's no doubt about it".[58] He also stated that "Normally Sweden and other countries have city planners that decide this kind of issue. To decide this kind of issue in a referendum seems very strange to me".
- Turkey – Turkish President Abdullah Gül called the ban "shameful".[citation needed]
- Foreign Ministry, which protested against the ban.[59]
- Muammar al-Gaddafi cited the minaret ban as grounds for his call for a Jihad against Switzerland in a speech held in Benghazi on the occasion of Mawlid, four months after the vote. Gaddafi also called on Muslims around the world to boycott Switzerland, and stated that "any Muslim in any part of the world that works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, Allah, and the Koran".[60][61][62][63]
Non-governmental political responses
The Swiss referendum was welcomed by several European far right parties:[64]
- Carinthia and Vorarlberg.[66]
- Belgium – Filip Dewinter of the Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) stated that it "is a signal that they have to adapt to our way of life and not the other way around".[68]
- Denmark – The Danish People's Party expressed support for a similar referendum on a ban on building of minarets[65][69] as well as on large mosques[70] in Denmark.
- Netherlands – Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Party for Freedom stated he is now aiming at making a similar referendum possible in the Netherlands.[69]
- Italy – Mario Borghezio of the Lega Nord declared that "the flag of a courageous Switzerland which wants to remain Christian is flying over a near-Islamised Europe". Roberto Calderoli of the same party further stated that "Switzerland is sending us a clear signal: yes to bell towers, no to minarets".[65][73]
- Germany – A senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, Wolfgang Bosbach, stated that criticism of the ban would be "counterproductive", and that the ban reflected a fear of growing Islamization, a fear which "must be taken seriously".[58]
On 30 January 2010, Pakistani newspaper
See also
- Islam in Switzerland
- Right-wing populism in Switzerland
- Special Provisions
References
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Further reading
- Marcel Stüssi Banning of Minarets: Addressing the Validity of a Controversial Swiss Popular Initiative[citation needed]
- Marcel Stüssi MODELS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: Switzerland, the United States, and Syria by Analytical, Methodological, and Eclectic Representation, 375 ff. (Lit 2012).
- Lorenz Langer Panacea or Pathetic Fallacy? The Swiss Ban on Minarets' (2010) 43 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 863-951
- Giovanni Biaggini, Die schweizerische direkte Demokratie und das Völkerrecht – Gedanken aus Anlass der Volksabstimmung über die Volksinitiative „Gegen den Bau von Minaretten“' (2010) 62 Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht 325-343.
- Vincenzo Pacillo, Stopp Minarett? The controversy over the building of minarets in Switzerland: religious freedom versus collective identity“' (2012), in S. Ferrari, S. Pastorelli (eds.) - Religion in Public Spaces A European Perspective - Ashgate Farnham/London - 337 - 352.
External links
- Egerkinger Initiative Committee (French, German, Italian)
- Society for Minorities in Switzerland (French, German, Italian)
- The Swiss Journal of Religious Freedom (German, English, French, and Italian)