Logo of the Swiss "Anti-Minaret Initiative"

SWITZERLAND OWES ITS INTERNATIONAL reputation to its watches, bank accounts, chocolate, and the Matterhorn, but now it is gaining a name for itself in another area as well: as a bulwark against Muslim expansion in Europe. On November 29 the country is holding a nationwide referendum concerning the construction of mosques on Swiss territory. But a controversial political poster is already raising temperatures in this land of Alpine glaciers and pristine ski resorts.

 
"Stop. [Vote] Yes to the minaret ban."

The offending placard is the product of the “Anti-Minaret Committee,” an initiative that seeks to anchor a proposed ban on the construction of minarets in the Swiss constitution. The poster shows a veiled woman standing against a backdrop of missile-like minarets shooting out of the Swiss flag. The Committee is claiming that minarets are not really religious symbols but rather emblems of Muslim power and Sharia law. As such, the organization regards their construction as an insidious threat to the basic rights of the Swiss people as a whole.

Georg Kreis, president of the Federal Commission Against Racism, told the Swiss TV news program Tagesschau on September 20 that the poster is “dangerous” and “represents a defamatory attempt to depict Muslims as an immense danger to Switzerland.” The same day, Walter Wobmann, a member of the National Council of Switzerland for the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the chairman of the initiative, told the tabloid SonntagsBlick that the poster was merely honest in light of the fact that “Islamization is a growing threat – and we are defending ourselves against it.”  Wobmann merely shrugged off the poster’s visual content, commenting that “minarets just happen to look like missiles.” The posters will start going up in October, unless the government reacts and takes them out of circulation.

The national-conservative SVP has been increasingly swinging to the right in recent years and is presenting himself as the voice of the growing number of Swiss who fear the encroachment of Muslims, Africans, and other foreigners on their unique way of life.  Some of their posters reflect this trend towards open xenophobia. They have prove so successful in whipping up fear that Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party has copied some of these motifs for its own (now banned) election posters. This campaign has certainly shown results - today the SVP is Switzerland's largest party.

"Stop. Yes on the Naturalization Initiative."
This poster refers to a proposed ban on efforts to loosen

"A free pass[port] for everybody? No."
Black crows pick Switzerland to pieces

 
"Create security"

 
"Maria, not Sharia!"

The Swiss Council of Religions, which unites representatives of the main Christian churches, Jews, and Muslims, came out against the ban in early September. In an official declaration, the Council stated that it understood the fears many Swiss had of Islamic fundamentalism. Nevertheless, it said the country’s three major faiths should encounter one another and work out their differences as “sister religions.” Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, says that “this poster is Islamophobic and sows fear.” He also warns his adopted country of ruining Switzerland’s image in the Muslim world. Anti-racism chairman Kreis seconds him on this, saying that “this way of dealing with Muslims represents a greater threat to Switzerland than minarets.” (Muslims currently represent approximately 5.8% of the Swiss population.)

What sort of threat could this be? Denmark found out during the outcry against Mohammed caricatures published by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2006, when mobs in Muslim countries stormed Danish embassies and attacked Christians on the streets. The Swiss government has already set up a special commission to deal with the potential threat to Swiss citizens and interests abroad if the referendum goes through.

In fact, Switzerland’s days might already be numbered. Embroiled in his own conflict with the country, Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi recently asked the United Nations to dissolve the Swiss Confederation and divide its territory amongst its neighbors.

Anti-Danish riot, 2006