2009 Swiss minaret referendum

{Current|date=November 2009}} The construction of minarets has been subject to legal and political controversy in Switzerland during the 2000s. On 1 May 2007, a group of right-wing politicians mainly from the Swiss People's Party and the Federal Democratic Union, the Egerkinger Kommittee ("Egerkingen Committee") launched a federal popular initiative that sought a constitutional ban on minarets.

In a referendum on 29 November 2009, the amendment was approved by 57.5% of the voters. Only four of the 26 Swiss cantons, mostly in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, opposed the initiative.

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

Background

Legal dispute

[File:Moschee Wangen bei Olten.jpg|thumb|Minaret at the mosque of the local Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten, the initial motivation for the popular initiative.]] 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 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 had the opportunity to vote on it because all cantonal parliaments held the initiatives unconstitutional and therefore void.

Federal constitutional amendment banning the construction of minarets

{Muslims and controversies}}

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."

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). Promoters of popular initiatives have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures. 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 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 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.

=Feminists

The British newspaper 'The Times, cited support of the minaret ban by "radical feminists" who oppose the oppression of women in Islamic societies. The Times further reported that Swiss women supported the ban, in pre-election polling, by a greater percentage than did Swiss men.

Poster campaign

<gallery widths="160px" File:Minarets poster 1.jpg|First poster calling to support the ban, showing minarets on a Swiss flag and a woman wearing an abaya and niqab File:Minarets poster 2.jpg|Second poster; after some municipalities refused to allow posting of the original version on public ground, the second poster said "Censorship, one more reason to support minaret ban" </gallery

The committee's campaign featured provocative posters featuring a drawing of a Muslim woman in an abaya and niqab, next to a number of minarets, pictured in a way reminiscent of missiles, protruding from a Swiss flag.<ref>according to The Independent, CNN, BBC, Reuters, and Aljazeera Swiss vote to ban minaret construction CNN, 29 November 2009; Switzerland to vote on plan to ban minarets BBC, 27 November 2009; Swiss voters back ban on minarets in referendum Reuters, 29 November 2009<; Minaret ban wins Swiss support Aljazeera, 30 November 2009</re>

=Opposition

On the evening of the vote, demonstrations against the result were held in Switzerland's major cities. The banner beneath the makeshift minarets reads: "Integrate rather than exclude."

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. It believes 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 criticised 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.

Parliament

The Federal Assembly recommended (by 129 to 50 votes) in spring of 2009 that the Swiss people reject the minaret ban initiative.

Non-governmental organizations

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

Religious organisations

Catholic bishops oppose a minaret ban. A statement from the Swiss Bishops Conference said that a ban would hinder interreligious dialogue and added that the construction and operation of minarets were already regulated by Swiss building codes. The statement requested that "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. The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities are also against any ban on building minarets. Says Dr Herbert Winter, the president of the Federation: “As Jews we have our own experience. For centuries we were excluded: we were not allowed to construct synagoges or cupola roofs. We do not want that kind of exclusion repeated.” . Many other religious organisations 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. In July 2008, before the popular initiative, he argued that "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 sees the initiative as breaching 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 invalidation of the 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."

Result

Main article: Swiss referendum, November 2009

The results of the November 2009 referendum by canton. Red indicates opposition to the ban of minarets, green support of the ban.

In a referendum on 29 November 2009, the amendment, which needed a double majority to pass, was approved by 57.5% of the voters and by 19½ cantons out of 23. Geneva, Vaud and Neuchatel, all of which are French speaking cantons, voted against the ban (59.7%, 53.1% and 50.9% respectively). The canton of Basel-City, which has half a cantonal vote and the largest Muslim community of Switzerland, also rejected the ban by 51.6%. The voter turnout was 53.4%.

The city of Zurich along with Geneva and Basel also showed a slight majority opposed to the ban, uniting the three largest Swiss cities in rejecting the initiative. The canton of Zurich as a whole, however, voted 52% yes. 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%).

The Swiss Green Party have declared that in their opinion, the ban introduces a contradiction into the Swiss constitution, which also contains a paragraph which guarantees freedom of religion and they have announced their intention to appeal to the European Court on Human Rights on the matter.

Langenthal minaret

The ban on new minarets may be put to the test in the case of a pending project of building a minaret for a mosque in Langenthal, canton of Berne. The Islamic community of Langenthal has announced their intention of taking their case to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland and if necessary further to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The attorney of the community has also announced doubts on whether the ban can be taken to affect the Langenthal project because the application for planning permission had been handed to the authorities in 2006, it may be argued that the ban cannot be taken to apply to this project ex post facto. On the other hand, Bernese officials and Rainer Schweizer, law professor at St. Gallen University, have expressed their opinion that the ban renders the Langenthal project obsolete.

See also

• Islam in Switzerland
• Religion in Switzerland
• Voting in Switzerland
• Right-wing populism in Switzerland
• Freedom of religion
• Islamophobia

Bibliography

• Banning of Minarets: Addressing the Validity of a Controversial Swiss Popular Initiative, , by Marcel Stüssi, 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 October 2009