Anti-minaret poster campaign divides Swiss cities

[Tender Branson]

A controversial poster for the rightwing Swiss People's Party's anti-minaret campaign has been banned in several cities, but allowed in others.



Cities around the country have been announcing whether the poster of missile-like minarets atop a Swiss flag could be put up ahead of a nationwide vote on the issue on November 29.

Lausanne, Montreux, Fribourg and Yverdon-les-Bains followed Basel in outlawing the posters in publicly owned spaces, but Geneva, Zurich, Biel, Winterthur and Lucerne have rejected the ban on free-speech grounds.

Basel and Lausanne said the posters painted a "racist, disrespectful and dangerous image" of Islam. Zurich officials said while they also disapproved of the posters because they portrayed Islam as "threatening, negative and dangerous", they had to be accepted as part of political free-speech in the run-up to the vote.

The initiative to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland was launched by the People's Party and a small ultra-conservative Christian party.

The Federal Commission against Racism said the campaign's main poster "incites hatred".

Representatives of the People's Party said the commission is censoring free-speech like Nazis and communists.

Swiss Communications Minister Moritz Leuenberger waded into the debate on Thursday saying he "understood" why cities would ban the poster. In his blog he said the poster's image could harm Switzerland, adding that an image had a greater impact on people's thinking than words.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/Anti_minaret_poster_campaign_divides_cities.html?siteSect=104&sid=11326453&ty=nd

Currently the initiative is down 51-35 in the polls ...

[Tender Branson]

The numbers in the Franco cantons will be hilariously lopsided. And Schwyz will probably approve it, knowing them.

Found a breakdown of the latest poll:



The Franco areas are not really that different to the German parts.

And Catholics are most likely to oppose the measure ? WTF ?

Let me for a second imagine hoow this stuff would end in an Austrian referendum. I guess 70-30 against mosques and minarets, with FPÖ and BZÖ voters completely against, ÖVP voters most likely strongly against, SPÖ voters moderately against and Green voters for it. That's also backed up by polls from 2007 and 2008.

[Tender Branson]

Great, Forum just back in time when you need it. Apparently, there was a huge Bradley-Effect in Switzerland today:

Projection: Swiss vote to ban new minarets

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS (AP) – 41 minutes ago



GENEVA — Swiss voters approved a move to ban the construction of minarets in a Sunday vote on a right-wing initiative that labeled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a widely respected polling institute showed.

The projections based on partial returns say Swiss swung from only 37 percent supporting the proposal a week ago to 59 percent in the actual voting.

Claude Longchamp, leader of the widely respected gfs.bern polling institute, said the projection contracted by state-owned DRS television forecasts approval of the initiative by more than half the country's 26 cantons, meaning it will become a constitutional amendment.

The nationalist Swiss People's Party describes minarets, the distinctive spires used in most countries for calls to prayer, as symbols of rising Muslim political and religious power that could eventually turn Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

Muslims make up about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many Swiss Muslims are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13 percent practice their religion, the government says, and Swiss mosques do not broadcast the call to prayer outside their buildings.

"Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure — we don't have that in Switzerland, and we do not want to introduce it" said Ulrich Schlueer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets.

The move by the People's Party, the country's largest party in terms of popular support and membership in parliament, is part of a broader European backlash against a growing Muslim population. It has stirred fears of violent reactions in Muslim countries and an economically disastrous boycott by wealthy Muslims who bank, shop and vacation in Switzerland.

Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich, said, "The initiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way."

Hatipoglu said if in the long term the anti-Islam atmosphere continues, "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government has spoken out strongly against the initiative, and local officials and rights defenders objected to campaign posters showing minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.

The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

The four minarets already attached to mosques in the country are not affected by the initiative.

Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSvKwQU-w3j6Gp8PWHRzV2hnh54QD9C97FPG1

Canton results map:

http://tagesschau.sf.tv

[Tender Branson]

There are only 4 (French-speaking) cantons, in which it was voted down:

Geneva (60% No), Vaud (53% No), Basel-City (52% No) and Neuchâtel (51% No).

The other 19 (German-speaking) cantons all approved the ban, with the highest support in Appenzell-Innerrhoden (71% Yes).

[Tender Branson]

Interestingly, the 4 cantons who voted "No" have also the highest amount of foreigners in all of Switzerland (except the Italian Ticino where there are no results yet, because they are soo slow in counting).

[Tender Branson]

NZZ has a nice mapsy-thing (without the lazy Ticino):

[Tender Branson]

Ticino finally reporting:

68% Yes
32% No

Seems the Italians are siding with the German-speakers against the Muslims.

[Tender Branson]

The St. Moritz area (District of Maloja) is only 54% for the ban, in an area that is generally more like 60-70% for it.

Maybe the rich liberals voting behaviour that we see in some American ski resorts as well, or the fact that people who have to deal with tourists or foreigners on a daily basis are less xenophobic than regular inhabitants of eastern Switzerland. Probably more of the last.

[Tender Branson]

Final results with maps and tabs:



http://www.drs.ch/www/de/drs/nachrichten/ueberraschend-klares-ja-zu-minarettverbot/144576.153976.resultate-minarett-initiative.html

[Tender Branson]

I'd be curious to see local results for the four towns/cities/neighborhoods that currently have minarets.

There are currently 4 cities with minarets: Zürich, Genf, Winterthur and Wangen/Olten.

The results in these cities were:

Zürich City: 36.3 YES
Genf City: 37.0 YES
Winterthur City: 46.9 YES
Wangen/Olten: 61.3 YES

[Tender Branson]

The Swiss Statistics Office has an interactive map with district results online now:

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/17/03/blank/key/2009/05.html

Scroll down to "Verbot von Minaretten".

[Tender Branson]

In Austria there are 3 minarets in Vienna, Telfs and Bad Vöslau.

The latter 2 are very new and were built in 2006, but after protests from locals their height was changed from about 25 meters to about 13 meters and no Muezzin can go on top for prayer.

In Austria it is further state policy to decide if minarets can be built or not. Therefore states like Carinthia (BZÖ/ÖVP government) and Vorarlberg (then a ÖVP/FPÖ government) have banned the construction of minarets in these states.

[Tender Branson]

Oh dear, this thread went downhill fast.

It seems like the German-speaking part of Switzerland was not denazified like the rest of Europe was 60 years ago.

Austria's just the same.

The big difference between Austria and Switzerland is the fact that the Austrian government is not allowed to ban the construction of minarets, because it would be against Freedom of Religion, against Human Rights and against various International and EU treaties. In Austria, state governments may limit the construction of buildings who do not properly fit the city image (Raumplanungsverordnung). That´s what Carinthia and Vorarlberg did, but it wasn't actually a "ban on minarets", it`s just the fact that the Raumplanung would have to issue a permit for construction. A 25 meter minaret for example could be ruled as violating the city image by the authority, just like a 50 meter pink tower would when used as a residence. Therefore a ban of mosques and minarets like in Switzerland is completely out of question in Austria.

[Tender Branson]

If there was a referendum like this in Austria, what would the results be?

There is none, there have only been 2 referendums in the past 60 years (one against nuclear energy and one for the EU-membership).

The sentiment in the population is the same, it would probably be approved by about the same margin. Maybe 65-35 or 60-40.

But the main difference is that Switzerland is a direct democracy and we are a parliamentary democracy and you cannot find a majority in parliament to enact a ban. SPÖ/ÖVP and Green MPs would all vote against it, with only FPÖ and BZÖ in favor.

[Tender Branson]

And that is why the Swiss system is terrible.

Well, the European Human Rights Court will probably strike down the law anyway if brought before them, because it`s most likely violating the European Human Rights Convention.

Then it will provoke a reaction from the Swiss politicians, because they won't risk that Switzerland is thrown out of the European Council.

But first I guess the case will be brought before the Swiss Supreme Court.

[Tender Branson]

More on the Austrian political process for a ban on minarets:

Currently, only FPÖ and BZÖ support a ban on minarets here. They have 30% of all seats in parliament. For a ban to become law, parliament would have to vote in favor of the ban with a 2/3 majority. SPÖ+Greens alone have 42% of all seats, so this is completely unlikely. FPÖ-leader HC Strache is now talking about a so called "Volksbegehren", which is a petition to parliament every eligible voting-age person in Austria can sign. More than 100.000 signatures automatically lead to dealing with the issue in parliament. The last step would be a referendum on the law (issued by the Austrian President), but currently the "wrong (leftwing)" President is in office. For example, if Strache's petition for parliament gets 1.500.000 signatures and parliament debates and votes on the issue (lets say 35% in favor), a right-wing president could argue that this is not the will of the Austrian people and could issue a referendum. But simply put, Heinz Fischer would not issue such a referendum.

[Tender Branson]

Latest TNS-NIPO Netherlands poll on a minaret ban:

40% YES
56% NO

600 people polled yesterday for RTL News

http://www.tns-nipo.com/pages/nieuws-pers-rtl.asp?file=persvannipo\rtl_minaretten_301109.htm