GENEVA: Swiss voters approved a ban on new mosque minarets being built, prompting dismay and anger in the Muslim world at the success of the far-right initiative. The referendum to ban the towers or turrets attached to mosques from where Muslims are traditionally called to prayer was approved Sunday by 57.5 percent of voters who cast ballots and in 22 out of the country's 26 cantons. Far-right politicians across Europe celebrated the results, while the Swiss government sought to assure the Muslim minority that a ban on minarets was "not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture. The far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) - Switzerland's biggest party - had forced a referendum after collecting a mandatory 100,000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months. They said that the minarets - of which Switzerland has just four and which are not allowed to broadcast the call to prayer - were not architectural features with religious characteristics, but symbolized a "political-religious claim to power, which challenges fundamental rights. Having won a double majority on turnout of 53 percent, the initiative will now be inscribed in the country's constitution. "The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted, said the government, which had firmly opposed the ban, in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the result "reflects fears among the population of Islamic fundamentalist tendencies. "These concerns have to be taken seriously... However, the Federal Council takes the view that a ban on the construction of new minarets is not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies, she stressed. The referendum's approval was quickly condemned in the world's most populous Muslim nations. "This is the hatred of Swiss people against Muslim communities. They don't want to see a Muslim presence in their country and this intense dislike has made them intolerant, said Maskuri Abdillah, the head Indonesia's biggest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama. He called upon Muslims not to take "revenge for the decision, however. Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa denounced the ban on new minarets as an "insult to Muslims across the world. "This proposal ... is not considered just an attack on freedom of beliefs, but also an attempt to insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland, the Egyptian government's official interpreter of Islamic law was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency MENA. Switzerland has had an uneasy relationship with its Muslim population, which makes up some 5 percent of its population of 7.5 million people. Islam is the second largest religion here after Christianity. A mosque in Geneva was vandalized three times during the anti-minaret campaign, local media reported Saturday. Widmer-Schlumpf sought to reassure Muslims, saying: "It is not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture. Of that, the Federal Council gives its assurance. But for the 400,000-strong Muslim community here, comprised mainly of ex-Yugoslav and Turkish migrants and of whom only 50,000 are estimated to practice their faith, the harm has been done. "The most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote. Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community, said Farhad Afshar, who heads the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland. The Conference of Swiss Bishops also criticized the result, saying that it "heightens the problems of cohabitation between religions and cultures. Young people carrying candles and cardboard minarets led a mock funerary procession in the federal capital Bern, carrying a banner reading "This is not my Switzerland, the ATS news agency reported. "My country, like many in Europe, is facing a national reaction to the new visibility of European Muslims. The minarets are but a pretext, Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-Egyptian professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, wrote in the Guardian. "Voters were drawn to the cause by a manipulative appeal to popular fears and emotions. Posters featured a woman wearing a burka with the minarets drawn as weapons on a colonized Swiss flag, he added. "The claim was made that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Swiss values. (The UDC has in the past demanded my citizenship be revoked because I was defending Islamic values too openly.) In Zurich's central Helvetia Platz demonstrators erected around 12 mini-minarets made out of recycled objects, ATS said, with a total of a few hundred people protesting in the two cities. Amnesty International said the minaret ban is a "violation of religious freedom, incompatible with the conventions signed by Switzerland. The Swiss Green party said it was contemplating lodging a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for violation of religious freedoms as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. In Morocco, a parliamentarian from the Justice and Development Islamist Party expressed surprise. "I think that Muslims in Switzerland, and those who live in the European Union, have a lot of work to do in communication to show their real face of tolerance and cohabitation of Islam, said Saad Eddine Othmani. French far-right politician Marine Le Pen welcomed the outcome, saying that the "elites should stop denying the aspirations and fears of the European people, who, without opposing religious freedom, reject ostentatious signs that political-religious Muslim groups want to impose. "Switzerland is sending us a clear signal: yes to bell towers, no to minarets, said Roberto Calderoli, minister of administrative simplification and a member of Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party, told the ANSA news agency. Meanwhile, SVP Vice-President Yvan Perrin cheered the fact that his party had won the vote "without difficulty. He told Radio Suisse Romande that Swiss companies should not worry about suffering from a possible backlash from Muslim countries. "If our companies continue to make good quality products, they have nothing to worry about, he said. -Additional reporting by Daily News Egypt
