【09.11.29英国卫报】Swiss voters back minarets ban

和解团结

【原帖地址】http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ ... rets-ban-referendum
【日期】2009年11月29日


Swiss poster calling for a yes vote in a referendum against minarets. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Swiss voters have approved a proposal to ban the construction of minarets, after a rightwing campaign that labelled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a respected polling institute show.

Theprojections based on partial returns indicate that support swung from37% in favour of the ban a week ago to 59% in today's referendum.
ClaudeLongchamp, head of the gfs.bern polling institute, said the projectionfor state-owned DRS television showed approval in more than half thecountry's 26 cantons, meaning the measure will become a constitutionalamendment.

The nationalist Swiss People's party (SPP) describedminarets, the distinctive spires used in most countries for calls toprayer, as symbols of rising Muslim political and religious power thatcould eventually turn Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

Muslimsmake up about 6% of Switzerland's 7.5 million people, many of themrefugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13% practicetheir religion, the government says, and Swiss mosques do not broadcast the call to prayer outside their buildings.

"Forcedmarriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure andimpure – we don't have that in Switzerland, and we do not want tointroduce it" said Ulrich Schlueer, co-president of the InitiativeCommittee to ban minarets.

The move by the SPP, the country'slargest party in terms of popular support and membership in parliament,is part of a broader European backlash against a growing Muslimpopulation. It has stirred fears of violent reactions in Muslimcountries and an economically disastrous boycott by wealthy Muslims whobank, shop and holiday in Switzerland.

Taner Hatipoglu, presidentof the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Zurich, said, "Theinitiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and thatis to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their socialintegration in a negative way."

Hatipoglu said that if the anti-Islam atmosphere continued in the long term, "Muslims ... will not feel safe any more".

Theseven-member cabinet that heads the Swiss government spoke out stronglyagainst the initiative before the vote, and local officials and rightsdefenders objected to campaign posters showing minarets rising likemissiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.

TheSPP has campaigned against immigrants in previous years – mainlyunsuccessfully – with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking ablack sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbingeagerly for Swiss passports.

The four minarets already attached to mosques in the country are not affected by the vote.

OnThursday, Geneva's main mosque was vandalised when a pot of pink paintwas thrown at the entrance. Earlier this month a vehicle with aloudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call toprayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones atthe building.