Around the World: Switzerland

Minarets may be banned

Voters in a referendum yesterday voted in favor of imposing a blanket ban on the building of minarets in Switzerland, public television reported, citing exit polls. With ballot-counting still underway, the exit polls suggested that the proposal enjoyed around 59 percent support.

Switzerland's biggest party, the Swiss People's Party, forced a referendum on the issue claiming that minarets - the turrets or towers attached to mosques from where Muslims are called to prayer - symbolize a "political-religious claim to power". The Swiss government had asked voters to reject the call, arguing that accepting a ban would bring about "incomprehension overseas and harm Switzerland's image".

(China Daily 11/30/2009 page8)