Nation & World | Foreign, domestic anger at Swiss minaret ban | Seattle Times Newspaper
A top Swiss official said Monday that voter approval of a ban on minarets next to mosques could be struck down in court, as critics at home and abroad swiftly condemned the vote, saying it undermined the country's secular image.
Legal experts have questioned whether the ban on the Islamic towers used for the call to prayer is compatible with Switzerland's constitution and international human rights law.
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said it would come into force immediately, but indicated that it could be overturned.
“The ban contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights,” Zurich daily Blick cited Widmer-Schlumpf as saying. Switzerland currently presides over the European Court of Human Rights, which rules on breaches of the convention.
The vote brings the focus of a Europe-wide debate over Islam and immigration to Switzerland, and is a serious slap in the face for the government, which campaigned against it and was largely take by surprise.
The referendum backed by nationalist parties was approved by 57.5 percent of the population Sunday, forcing the government to declare illegal the building of any new minarets in Switzerland. It doesn't affect the country's four existing minarets.
France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was “a bit scandalized” by the vote, which amounts to “oppressing a religion.”
via Nation & World | Foreign, domestic anger at Swiss minaret ban | Seattle Times Newspaper.
