By Alan Fisher in Bern
Al-Jazeera
"Down in the little town of Waggen Bei Olten, about a 30 minute drive from the Swiss capital of Bern sits a rare landmark. In this unremarkable town next to the railway tracks, stands one of only four mosques in Switzerland with a minaret.
It's been there for eleven months. It took four years of negotiating the country, the area and the commune's tough planning laws before it was given permission. Now it sits, its blue spire pushing into the sky, almost cartoon-like in the way it's been added to the building.
Swiss voters are deciding in a referendum whether to ban minarets in the country. If right wing parties in Switzerland have their way, no more will be built. This, they say, is the beginning of Switzerland's fight against Islamification....
"Soon they will want the introduction of Sharia law."--Ulrich Schuler, Swiss MP and a leader of anti-minaret campaign.....
The referendum may have been decided this weekend, but debate about the role of Islam in Switzerland has just begun."
Al-Jazeera
"Down in the little town of Waggen Bei Olten, about a 30 minute drive from the Swiss capital of Bern sits a rare landmark. In this unremarkable town next to the railway tracks, stands one of only four mosques in Switzerland with a minaret.
It's been there for eleven months. It took four years of negotiating the country, the area and the commune's tough planning laws before it was given permission. Now it sits, its blue spire pushing into the sky, almost cartoon-like in the way it's been added to the building.
Swiss voters are deciding in a referendum whether to ban minarets in the country. If right wing parties in Switzerland have their way, no more will be built. This, they say, is the beginning of Switzerland's fight against Islamification....
"Soon they will want the introduction of Sharia law."--Ulrich Schuler, Swiss MP and a leader of anti-minaret campaign.....
The referendum may have been decided this weekend, but debate about the role of Islam in Switzerland has just begun."
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