What is wrong with the Swiss Minaret Ban?

Author(s) : Esma Baycan Herzog, Matteo Gianni

Source : https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:124106

Abstract:

“The issue of Muslim integration in Switzerland has received a great deal of attention internationally since the vote for the popular initiative ‘against the minarets’. The initiative, which aimed at forbidding the building of minarets in Switzerland – even though only four minarets existed in the country at the time at which the vote took place – was presented by the initiators as respecting the right of Muslims to practice their religion, yet provided a clear symbolic message and legal limitation to what the Swiss People’s Party (henceforth SPP) termed the Islamization of Swiss public space. In November 2009, 57.5 per cent of Swiss voters accepted the ban, providing a direct democratic legitimation to a decision that, according to several observers, involves the unfair treatment of Muslims (Vatter 2011).”