2009 Swiss minaret referendum

Minaret at the mosque of the local Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten. Inaugurated in July 2009, after four years of legal and political controversy, this minaret, a Turkey-made plastic construction placed on the roof of the Turkish cultural center, was the initial motivation for the popular initiative voted upon later in 2009 which led to a nation-wide ban on further minarets.

The construction of minarets has been subject to legal and political controversy in Switzerland during the 2000s. On 1 May 2007 the Egerkinger committee made up of members of the Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union launched a federal popular initiative which seeks a constitutional ban on minarets.

Swiss citizens voted on 29 November 2009 on a constitutional amendment banning the construction of new minarets. Partial returns indicate that the amendment was approved. The Swiss government conceded defeat on the issue following the release of the final tally, showing 57.5% of voters and the majority of cantons had backed the ban.

As of the date of the vote, there were four minarets in Switzerland, attached to mosques in Zurich, Geneva, Winterthur and Wangen bei Olten. These existing minarets will not be affected by the ban.

Background

The Ahmadiyya mosque in Zurich.

Legal Dispute

The Swiss minaret controversy began in a small commune in the Eastern 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-meter high tower (minaret) on the roof of its Islamic community center. 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-meter high minaret was eventually erected in July 2009.

Political Dispute

From 2006 until 2008 members of the Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union launched several cantonal (state) initiatives against the erection of minarets. The cantonal citizenry never became the opportunity to vote on it because all cantonal parliaments held the initiatives unconstitutional and therefore void. In 2007 simultaneous action was taken by the Egerkinger committee to counterfight these political defeats. They launched a federal popular initiative that seeks a constitutional ban on minarets. In Switzerland federal popular initiatives (as opposed to cantonal initiatives) cannot be judicially reviewed. The committee’s proposition reads: "The building of minarets is prohibited" and if enacted would be written into Article 72 (Section 3) of the Swiss Federal Constitution.

Support

Egerkinger Committee

The Egerkinger committee is made up of members of the Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union. The committee opines that the interests of residents, who are disturbed by specific kinds of religious land uses, are to be taken seriously. Moreover, it argues that Swiss residents should be able to block unwanted and unusual projects such as the erection of Islamic minarets. The committee alleges, inter alia, that "the construction of a minaret has no religious meaning. Neither in the Qur’an, nor in any other holy scripture of Islam is the minaret expressly mentioned at any rate. The minaret is far more a symbol of religious-political power claim [...]." The initiators justify their point of view by stating parts of the Turkish Prime Minister’s, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 1997 speech, which holds: "Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers. This holy army guards my religion." Ulrich Schluer, who is one of the Egerkinger committee’s most prominent exponent states in this respect: "A minaret has nothing to do with religion: It just symbolises a place where Islamic law is established." The members of the Egerkinger committee are the following politicians: Ulrich Schluer; Christian Waber; Walter Wobmann; Jasmin Hutter; Oskar Freysinger; Eric Bonjour; Eros N. Mellini; Sylvia Flückiger; Patrick Freudiger; Thomas Fuchs; Andreas Glarner; Lukas Reimann; Natalie Rickli; Cornelia Schaub; Barbara Steinemann; Daniel Zingg.

Swiss Citizens

A survey last year in Le Matin newspaper found that 43 percent of French-speaking Swiss questioned favoured a ban on minarets. However, the first poll on the issue by the leading gfs.berne polling (as of 23 October 2009) and research institute says 34 percent of the Swiss currently support the anti-minaret initiative, 53 percent reject it, and 13 percent are undecided. Two weeks ahead of the nationwide vote at the end of November, 53 percent of respondents said they reject the rightwing initiative, while 37 percent said they approve the ban. A further ten per cent were still undecided. So the proposal to ban the construction of minarets appears to be winning support, but is still some way short of a majority, according to the latest opinion poll.

Religious Organizations

As far as overseeable there is no religious organization in Switzerland which has officially announced its support for the minaret ban. The contrary is the case, such as the Salvation Army, which has expressed its disagreement with the opinion of its own member Christian Waber who is one of the main proponents of the minaret ban.

Opposition

The Swiss Government

The Swiss Federal Council opposes a building ban on minarets. It says that popular initiative against the construction of minarets has been submitted in accordance with the applicable regulations, but infringes guaranteed international human rights and contradicts the core values of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Such a ban would endanger peace between religions and would not help to prevent the spread of fundamentalist Islamic beliefs. In its opinion the Federal Council therefore recommends that the Swiss people reject the initiative. The Federal Commission against Racism criticized the people’s initiative. It claims that the initiative defames Muslims and violates religious freedom, which is protected by fundamental and human rights and the ban on discrimination.

The Swiss General Assembly (Parliament)

The Swiss General Assembly recommended (by 129:50 votes) in its spring session of 2009 that the Swiss people reject the minaret ban initiative.

NGOs

The Society for Minorities in Switzerland calls for freedom and equality. It started an internet based campaign in order to gather as many symbolic signatures as possible against a possible minaret ban. Amnesty International warned the minaret ban aims to exploit fears of Muslims and encourage xenophobia for political gains. "This initiative claims to be a defense against rampant Islamification of Switzerland," Daniel Bolomey, the head of Amnesty’s Swiss office, said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP). "But it seeks to discredit Muslims and defames them, pure and simple." Economiesuisse finds an absolute construction ban would hit Swiss foreign interests negatively. It points to the fact that only the launch of the initiative caused turmoil in the Islamic world. The Swiss based "Unser Recht" association publishes a number of articles against a minaret ban.

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TJORF Campaign

The Swiss Journal of Religious Freedom launched in fall 2009 a public campaign for religious harmony, security, and justice in Switzerland. It distributed several thousand stickers in the streets of Zurich for the right to religious freedom.

Religious Organizations

Catholic bishops oppose a minaret ban. The bishops said in a joint statement that a ban would hinder interreligious dialogue and added that the construction and operation of minarets were already regulated by Swiss building codes. "Our request for the initiative to be rejected is based on our Christian values and the democratic principles in our country." The official journal of the Catholic Church in Switzerland publishes a series of articles on the minaret controversy. The Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches holds that the popular initiative is not about minarets, but is rather an expression of the initiators’ concern and fear of Islam. It views a minaret ban as a wrong approach to overcome such objections. Many other religious organizations find the idea of a complete minaret ban as lamentable. These are: the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and Communities in Switzerland; the Swiss Evangelical Alliance; the Old Catholic Church in Switzerland; the Covenant of Swiss Baptists; the Salvation Army; the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Switzerland; the Orthodox Diocese the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; the Serbian Orthodox Church in Switzerland; and the Anglican Church in Switzerland.

Individual Legal Experts

Marcel Stüssi argues that any ban would be incompatible with articles of international law to which Switzerland is a signatory. In any case, cantonal zoning laws already prohibit the construction of buildings that do not match their surroundings. "Right-wing initiatives like the minaret one can misuse the system," says Stüssi. He calls the initiative "obsolete and unnecessary" but adds that the public discourse on the issue could put Switzerland in a positive light, at least for the majority who at this point oppose a ban. "Crisis always creates an opportunity. A popular vote against a proposed ban would be the highest declaration for the recognition of the Swiss Muslim community." "It would also be an expressed statement that anybody is equally subject to the law and to the political process," Stüssi said in an interview with World Radio Switzerland. Heinrich Koller, states that "Switzerland must abide by international law because both systems together form a unity." Giusep Nay states that from an objective viewpoint jus cogens is to be read and given effect in association with fundamental norms of international law. According to Nay, this interpretation means that any state action must be in accordance with fundamental material justice, and applies not only to interpretations of applicable law, but also to new law. Erwin Tanner finds the initiative breaches not only the constitutionally entrenched right to religious freedom, but also the right to freedom of expression, enjoyment of property, and equality. The editorial board of the Revue de Droit Suisse called for the invalidation of initiative as "it appears that the material content of popular initiatives is subject to ill-considered draftsmanship because the drafters are affected by particular emotions that merely last for snatches."

Popular Initiatives Explained

Swiss citizens are sovereign and act as the ultimate supreme authority. By their will they may seek via federal popular initiative to enact, revoke or alter such, and any, constitutional provision as they see fit. Popular initiatives do not originate from parliament or government, but from citizens themselves. They are therefore regarded as the driving force behind direct democracy. Initiators have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures. If they succeed and several legal obstacles are overcome, the proposal (initiative) is put before the Swiss citizenry in a nationwide vote.

Bibliography

• Banning of Minarets: Addressing the Validity of a Controversial Swiss Popular Initiative, , by Marcel Stuessi, research fellow at the University of Lucerne.

External links

• http://www.minarets.ch Egerkinger Initiative Committee (French, German, Italian), 26 June 2007
• http://www.gms-minderheiten.ch/minarettverbot Society for Minorities in Switzerland (French, German, Italian), 15 September 2009
• http://www.tjorf.org The Swiss Journal of Religious Freedom (German, English, French, and Italian), 15 Oktorber 2009