The impact of the minaret vote in Switzerland

Muslims in Switzerland were not really a European issue until 29 November, 2009. While there is no colonial history, there used to be annual summer immigration of rich traditional Arab families spending their money around Lake Geneva, people with high socio"‘economic standing and a multicultural and multilingual tradition" nothing that was really religiously problematic. But, since 2003 and the cantonal referendum on public"‘legal recognition of non"‘Christian religious communities in the canton of Zurich the situation has changed. That debate was reduced to an Islamic issue on the emerging danger of reducing tax support to Koranic schools. The 2004 referendum on easier naturalization of 2nd and 3rd generation migrants in Switzerland became a debate on Islam and Muslims. The opposition pointed out the danger that" should the ballot be won" by 2040 Swiss Muslims would have increased in number by 70%.1 The Islamization of this debate contributed decisively to the rejection of the initiative. So the current situation is clearly different and the 'minaret vote' may turn out to be a turning point in history. As a result, this paper discusses two issues linked to the Muslim presence in Switzerland. The first and most obvious is the minaret vote of November 2009, and the second, close to the mosque issue, is the more complex question of imams working in Switzerland.