Swiss People Majority Favours Minaret Ban

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GENEVA: Voters in a referendum on Sunday voted in favour of imposing a blanket ban on the building of minarets in Switzerland, public television reported, citing exit polls.

With ballot-counting still underway, the exit polls suggested that the proposal -- put forth by far-right politicians -- enjoyed around 59 percent support.

Prior to the referendum, opinion polls indicated that more Swiss would oppose rather than support the ban.

Earliest results after polls closed at mid-day showed that at least four cantons -- all in German-speaking Switzerland -- want a ban on minarets.

Partial results also showed that Lucerne is for the ban, while French-speaking cantons Geneva and Vaud are against.

The Swiss People''s Party (SVP) -- Switzerland''s biggest party -- had forced a referendum under Swiss regulations on the issue after collecting 100,000 signatures within 18 months from eligible voters.

It claims that minarets -- the turrets or towers attached to mosques from where Muslims are called to prayer -- symbolise a "political-religious claim to power."

The Swiss government has asked voters to reject the call, arguing that accepting a ban would bring about "incomprehension overseas and harm Switzerland''s image."

Switzerland, a nation of 7.5 million people, has an uneasy relationship with its Muslim minority of around 400,000. Islam is its second largest religion after Christianity.

Switzerland''s Commission Against Racism said the campaign defamed the Muslim minority, stirred up hatred and could threaten public peace.

Religious groups, including Christians, Jews and Muslims, have also come out in a rare show of unity against the right-wing proposal.

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Wonder how the got so many votes?

One Swiss political party is currently encouraging to vote for the prohibition of minarets with this poster.

A few newspapers have declined to print this poster, additionally the poster has been banned in a few cities. Switzerland's “stop minaret” movement is backed by the influential ultra-conservative Swiss People's Party, (SVP) which was re-elected in 2007 with its largest ever share of the vote after mounting an anti-foreigner campaign that was denounced by the United Nations as racist.

Ulrich Schüler, an SVP parliamentarian and leading member of the anti-minaret movement, says the edifices are political rather than religious. “They are symbols of a desire for power, of an Islam which wants to establish a legal and social order fundamentally contrary to the liberties guaranteed in our constitution,” he said.

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In 2004, the same SVP had success in restricting the naturalization laws for prospective new Swiss citizens, something which the party campaigned for again last year. Both times, this illustration was used on posters, showing thieving hands of many skin colours reaching into a pile of Swiss passports. Swiss naturalization laws are already among the strictest in the world.