Let sleeping dogs lie! Non-Christian religious minorities in Switzerland today

Abstract

In Switzerland, as in most European countries, non-Christian religious communities are growing in size. For over two decades, Swiss citizens have had to cope with an increasing number of people with other faiths and ways of life. Swiss institutions and the Swiss public are increasingly confronted with the demands of minority groups-individually and/or collectively-for acknowledgement of their rights to particular cultural-religious forms and to their own social goals. Swiss institutions and the value systems they represent are therefore compelled to respond to pressures which are new to them. On the other hand, members of immigrant minorities strive for the recognition of particular objectives, which many members of the ‘host’ society consider incompatible with established notions.