29 October 2010 Almost one year following the referendum to ban minarets in Switzerland, a survey commissioned by the Protestant newspaper Reformiert and carried out by Isopublic seems to indicate that the results of the Swiss minaret ban would be similar were the vote to be held again today: 43% of the 1004 individuals from…
31 October 2010 The rise of right-wing populist parties in Europe is discussed in this interview with the Austrian political scientist Reinhold Gärtner. In Gärtner’s opinion, Muslims and Islam have come to be the main scapegoats in many European countries, just as Jews or Roma have been in the past. The juxtaposition of criminality, immigration,…
21 September 2010 The canton of Bern has confirmed the construction permit for a minaret in Langenthal. Despite the minaret ban that exists in Switzerland since the referendum of 29 November 2009, local officials stated that the project had been approved before the referendum took place, and thus the prior legal situation should take precedence….
September 14, 2010 The parliament of the canton of Aargau has voted a motion addressed to the federal government calling for a ban of burqas in public spaces. The motion was supported by right-wing parties, while the Socialist head of the Interior Department, Urs Hofmann, stated that it “brought nothing new in terms of security”…
According to a recent report by the Swiss Intelligence Services (SIC), the ban on the construction of minarets has not led to a heightened risk of Islamic terrorism in the country. Nonetheless, the SIC states that Islamic terrorism remains “one of the most present threats” to the Switzerland, and that the state should not lower…
