Switzerland to vote on plan to ban minarets
On Sunday Swiss voters will have their say on a controversial proposal to impose a constitutional ban on the building of minarets.
The proposal is backed by conservative Christian groups and by the biggest party in Switzerland’s parliament, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which says allowing minarets would lead to the Islamisation of the country.
There are an estimated 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland, most from the former Yugoslavia or Turkey. Islam is the country’s most widespread religion after Christianity, but although there are Muslim prayer rooms, proper mosques with minarets are few and far between.
There are just four across Switzerland, and in recent years, all applications to build minarets have been turned down. [continued…]
