Switzerland Referendum: The Importance of the Burqa Ban for right-wing groups.

On the 7th of March 2021, Switzerland – with a narrow majority of 51%[1] – voted in favour of approving a nationwide ban on full-face coverings. This sees Switzerland join the growing number of European countries to vote in favour of such initiatives, with France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, and Bulgaria each having put in place…

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Pew Research Center study finds familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam in Western Europe

A Pew Research Center study has observed that “people who say they personally know a Muslim are generally more likely than others to have positive opinions of Muslims and their religion”. Knowing something about Islam (rather than personally knowing a Muslim) is less associated with positive opinions about Muslims and their religion, however.

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Switzerland to Muslim Students: Shake Your Teacher’s Hand or Pay $5,000

25 May 2016 When two teenage Muslim students from Syria told their school in Switzerland that to shake their female teacher’s hand would violate their religious beliefs, administrators were sympathetic. So they made an exception: Unlike the school’s other students, who shake each teacher’s hand at the beginning and end of each class period, the…

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Three Lessons from Switzerland’s Immigration Referendum

February 24, 2014   BERLIN—On February 9, a small majority of Swiss voters approved a proposal by the right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to significantly limit migration inflows from other European countries. The Swiss vote garnered attention across Europe because it now requires the renegotiation of certain agreements between the European Union and Switzerland…

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Swiss referendum on immigration

February 12, 2014   According to Robert Misik, Xenophobia was just one of the reasons why 50.3% of those who voted in Switzerland’s recent referendum on immigration back strict quotas for immigration from European Union countries; a provincial mentality and anti-EU sentiment also played a role.   Read more: http://en.qantara.de/content/swiss-referendum-on-immigration-the-swiss-against-the-world

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