8 March 2012 A research project by members of the University of Amsterdam has concluded that religious organizations provide a source of de-escalation in tensions around Islam in the Netherlands. Commissioned by the justice ministry’s Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (WODC), the project studied five cases of criticism of Islam in western countries, including the…
November 18, 2010 Switzerland has been cited in a recent US report on threats to religious freedoms in the world. While normally the report focuses on countries such as North Korea, Iran, China, and Burma, according to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, “several European countries have imposed severe restrictions on religious expression.” The Swiss…
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called for a moratorium on the Swiss minaret ban during a debate on Islam, Islamism, and Islamophobia in Europe. The recommendation was passed with the unanimous support of the entire assembly, including that of all the Swiss representatives, even André Bugnon, who had earlier supported the…
The Austrian publisher Studienverlag has published a yearbook of research on Islamophobia in the German-speaking countries (Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung 2010: Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz). It is an introduction to the academic use of the term “Islamophobia” and includes recent empirical examples such as the courtroom murder of Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini or the Swiss minaret ban. Further…
The Association for a Tolerant and Open-minded Switzerland has gathered 4 000 signatures in opposition to the Swiss minaret ban. The signatures were given to a Muslim youth organisation, Ummah, after having been collected mostly on line.
