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Swiss to vote on minaret referendum

ZURICH, Switzerland (UPI) -- A Swiss referendum on whether to ban the building of minarets on mosques is causing some businesses to say they worry about backlash from Muslim countries.

The right-wing Swiss People's Party said in Zurich, Switzerland, minarets are a symbol of Islamic religious intolerance. Voters will decide Nov. 29 on whether to ban them, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Fifty-three percent of voters are against the ban and 34 percent are for it, a national poll by the state-owned media organization SRG indicated.

Muslim leaders who have kept a low-profile about the controversy, however, are worried.

"This initiative gives a message that Muslims are not welcome here. If it passes, it raises the possibility of radicalization of some young people. It would be a big disappointment." Elham Manea, a political science lecturer at the University of Zurich, said.

A defeat of the referendum won't dissipate the tension, Hisham Maizer, head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland, said.

"The debate about Islam in Switzerland has just begun," Maizer said.

The Swiss government is opposed to the referendum.

"(A vote in favor of the referendum) could make Switzerland a target for Islamic terrorism," Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 11/06/2009

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