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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Swiss to ban minarets, exit polls say – report
Swiss ministers Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, left, Doris Leuthard and Moritz Leuenberger at a news conference on the results of the votes in Switzerland in Bern November 29 2009. Swiss voters have approved a right-wing-backed proposal to ban construction of new minarets, initial projections showed, a surprise result that could damage Switzerland's economic ties with Muslim states.
The Swiss are on the verge of banning the construction of minarets in their country, exit polls said after a November 29 2009 referendum, the BBC reported.
The result is not yet official, but the BBC's correspondent in Berne said if it was confirmed, it would be a surprise.
Partial results from the poll indicated that the German-speaking canton of Lucerne had approved the ban, while French-speaking cantons Geneva and Vaud voted against, news agency AFP said
Under the Swiss system, a referendum result is not binding unless a majority of canton voting districts approve it, as well as a majority of voters.
The president of Zurich's Association of Muslim Organisations, Tamir Hadjipolu, told the BBC that if the ban was implemented, Switzerland's Muslim community would live in fear.
"This will cause major problems because during this campaign in the past two weeks different mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland.
"So with the campaign...Islamophobia has increased very intensively."
Sunday's referendum was held after the People's Party collected 100 000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months, calling for a vote.
According to the BBC, the outcome of the referendum is bad news for the Swiss government, which had urged voters to reject a ban on minarets, fearing unrest among the Muslim community and damage to Switzerland's relations with Islamic countries.
The result is not yet official, but the BBC's correspondent in Berne said if it was confirmed, it would be a surprise.
Partial results from the poll indicated that the German-speaking canton of Lucerne had approved the ban, while French-speaking cantons Geneva and Vaud voted against, news agency AFP said
Under the Swiss system, a referendum result is not binding unless a majority of canton voting districts approve it, as well as a majority of voters.
The president of Zurich's Association of Muslim Organisations, Tamir Hadjipolu, told the BBC that if the ban was implemented, Switzerland's Muslim community would live in fear.
"This will cause major problems because during this campaign in the past two weeks different mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland.
"So with the campaign...Islamophobia has increased very intensively."
Sunday's referendum was held after the People's Party collected 100 000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months, calling for a vote.
According to the BBC, the outcome of the referendum is bad news for the Swiss government, which had urged voters to reject a ban on minarets, fearing unrest among the Muslim community and damage to Switzerland's relations with Islamic countries.
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Top UN Human Rights official calls Swiss minaret ban discriminatory
The UN High Commissioner believes this action risks putting Switzerland on a collision course with its international human-rights obligations
Swiss holding referendum on a ban on minarets
Swiss government is urging people to reject the controversial ban proposed by the Swiss People’s Party, the largest party in parliament, which sees minarets as divisive political symbols and signs of an increasing Islamic presence in Switzerland.
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Most Muslim like their founder always mix truth with lie together to deceive people. When they want to justify themselve, they will say whoever go against "God & Me" is against God because they would not say whoever go against me is against me. When they want to justify themselve they will say "Killig Christian together with Muslim" is wrong but in fact they mean "Fighting Muslim is wrong but Muslim killing non-Muslim on a daily bases in false". This is in fact built into every Muslim head to use this embeded- lie-in-truth to justify their LIES. It is more [...]
Read the full comment than a moon god but the spirit of the moon god is called "LIE". When they caught red-handed they will justify themselve and say "Why do you catch me killing innocents with knife? See they are so many other using knife in the kitchen why are you not catching them? Why me? not fair!"
You call yourself DedenderOfTruth? But I have just prove you to be a DefenderOf Lie.
European Muslims are being treated as second class citizens and that they are discriminated against on a daily basis all over Europe. After all Europeans committed both the Holocaust genocide against the Jews and the Bosnian Genocide against Muslims in the past century. Europe has a long history of intolerance of non-Christians and other minorities like the Gypsies. There has recently been some hope that Europe was finally starting to be a welcoming place for minorities but this hateful and discriminatory vote against Switzerland's small and peaceful Muslim minority led by right-wing xenophobic parties indicates that Europe is becoming an [...]
Read the full comment unwelcoming and dangerous place for minorities once again. Its a flashback to the ani-Jew propaganda of the 1920s and 1930s which eventually led to the Holocaust and the anti-Muslim propaganda in the former Yugoslavia which led the the genocide of Bosnian Muslims and the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's Albanian Muslim population. If this hate which is propagated by right-wing and neofascist groups is not challenged by moderate Europeans then more terrible scenes of violence against minorities in Europe could be repeated.
From now on, I am buying Swiss products!
At last the turning point has arrived and the world shall see the truth behind the Cult of the Moon.
Let the Muslims leave Europe, Europeans must not become Dhimmis in their own country. If Islam is so wonderful then why dont all Muslims go live in Saudi Arabia - the birth place of Islam? This is a warning to all Europeans - do not believe in the media! Islam has brought misery and death wherever it is. Switzerland, you have COURAGE!!
The minaret is a powerful symbol for backwardness, savagery, and lifestyle with NO rights for women, gays, and Christians - everything Europe has stood for and has achieved with much suffering, is an offence to most Muslims.
Islam should be treated exactly how they treat others in their lands.
Good for the Swiss!
When the Orthodox Serbs committed the biggest genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign in Europe since the Holocaust (in which Christians committed genocide against Europe's defenseless Jewish community) nobody talked about how evil the Orthodox Christian ideology was and nobody contemplated the banning of Orthodox Churches or their spires. I personally never blamed the Orthodox Church and am simply using it as an example of Europe's blatant hypocrisy. It is sickening to see the Europeans always blame the graceful religion of Islam for ever single act of violence committed by a Muslim but will never blame any other religion for the [...]
Read the full comment war crimes and genocide that were committed by its adherents. It is clear that the way in which the media covers world news is slanted towards Islamophobia and the hatred/distrust of all Muslims regardless of their personal believes or actions. It is racism and fascism in its purest and most frightening form. It seems that Europe and especially Switzerland has learned nothing from the Holocaust and is preparing another such holocaust on Europe's defenseless Muslim population.
At last > It has taken a little country like the swiss to chalenge the Islamic beast. Good luck to The swiss for showing guts may this be just the start to stop those Muslims which every other country coweres too,
The Swiss have given the rest of europe hope. Thank you.
If muslims will live in fear without the minarets, they are free to go to any muslim country .
This result is not a surprise for anybody, it is the only possible repsponse to what muslims bring to Europe - nothing, apart from dodgy culture and religion . There will be more of the same.