Love is a great feeling. Happiness and a sense of completeness come with it. But usually , a love relationship also has its rough patches. I love our democracy. But at the moment, I wonder what in the world is wrong with it. Switzerland will vote on an initiative that in case of a majority of votes and a majority of states saying yes would add a clause to our constitution to prohibit the construction of minarets on mosques. A scary thought. Mind you, Switzerland is the depository state of the Geneva convention and the fight for human rights is an important part of our foreign policy. And yet do we have a considerable number of people who believe that the clause of religious freedom in our constitution is limited to Christianity. Experts on constitutional law apparently see no problem in this initiative as it does not prevent Muslims from practicing their religion. Nevertheless, I am appalled by the thought that a sizeable group of people in our country (there are about 300,000 Muslims living in Switzerland. That is a bit less than the population of Zurich) would not be allowed to add an important symbol to their house of worship.
Once again, our right wing party was successful in demonizing a group of people in my country. Instead of seeking an open dialog, demagoguery is their choice of method to deal with an issue. Yes, Switzerland has to deal with its Muslim population. Yes, we have to accept that our homogenous society is becoming more and more a heterogeneous one with all its disadvantages – and advantages. Instead of showing a lot more curiosity towards the new and unknown, we choose to take the easy way out by simply believing the stereotypes that are so readily available. Hardly anyone has a detailed understanding of Islam and the various values and practices. And this initiative gives the impression that some want to rather leave it this way. I think the statement of Hisham Maizar in yesterday’s edition of “Der Bund”, the newspaper in Bern, exemplifies it very well. He said “if someone sneezes in Afghanistan it is the fault of the Muslims in Switzerland.”

In a way it is funny. We are willingly accepting the variety of Christian movements and sects, some of which can probably be called fundamentalistic. Yet, we seem to be unable to accept that a similar variety could exist among Muslims in Switzerland. Instead, all of them are considered a threat and should therefore be hindered as much as possible to live their religion. There is no doubt that there are probably fundamentalist Islamist at work in Switzerland. And they have to be stopped, if they do not want to accept our society, our culture and our values. But it would be considerably easier to achieve this goal in cooperation with the moderate Muslim population. However, why in the world should they trust the majority Christian population and decision makers when they throw everybody in the same pot? How can we as a society possibly be successful in integrating a new group of inhabitants, when we are refusing an honest and open dialog? I do hope that the pragmatism in Switzerland will win once again and that this initiative will have the same fate as so many before: it will be turned down. I really hope this is just a rough patch as I do want to continue my love affair with our democracy.