The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) has discreetly made public an official position paper “on topics related to Islam.” The text rejects xenophobic stereotyping while at the same time emphasizing the need to defend the “largely secular society.” Western European history is characterized as the product of a process of secularization, while on the…
The Fethullah Gülen movement has been growing in influence across the world, and that includes Switzerland. The Sera School, opened in August 2009, was portrayed only a few months later by the magazine Beobachter as a questionable organization linked to Gülen’s network, which was promoting the creation of a parallel society in Switzerland. The Sera…
The controversial German Islamic preacher Pierre Vogel has surprisingly and legally entered Switzerland in order to give a talk during an educational seminar in Disentis, in the canton of Graubünden. Vogel is not considered a “hate or radical preacher” in Germany, however he had been refused entry to the country last December, though Swiss authorities…
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.
Following criticism from Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger concerning the ongoing diplomatic conflict between Switzerland and Libya, Swiss Federal President Doris Leuthard has retorted that Switzerland simply expects solidarity from other members of the Schengen zone, as it is a member itself. Leuthard also defended the Swiss minaret ban as sign that the Swiss people…
