Approximately 310,000 Muslims live in Switzerland today: 4.5% of the total population. Muslims in Switzerland are migrants from different countries: 42% Turks, 36% ex-Yugoslavs, 4% North Africans, 3% Lebanese, 15% Africans, Asians and Americans. The majority of them (75%) live in the German-speaking part of the country, while 14% reside in the French-speaking area of Switzerland. These second, third or even fourth generation Muslims are split into many different groupings. Twenty years ago, there were few Muslim places of worship in Switzerland. Today there are more than 100 so-called Islamic cultural centres. According to the 2000 census, their number tends to increase threefold every ten years. By this calculation, Muslims could even form the majority of the population in 2025 or 30. At least, this is the argument which some of our politicians use to frighten our society into adopting more restrictive immigration legislation.
Fragmented communities
The Turkish, Bosnian and Albanian communities each have a main centre based in Zurich, with subsidiary organisations spread all over the country. Domestic political divisions in Turkey tend to be reproduced in their Swiss offshoots. Some centres are controlled by the Diyanet, the Turkish Ministry of religion, through a representative of the consulate; others are in the hands of Milli Görush, Turkeys Islamic opposition movement, the ex-Refah.
There are fewer citizens originating from the Arab world, and they are also less highly organised. Still, Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent, Egypt and Iran, are all influential. There are the so-called official centres; for example, the Islamic Foundation of Geneva, which is partially financed by Saudi Arabia; or the Stiftung islamische Gemeinschaft of Zurich, financed by the Emirates. The Saudi government, together with Saudi associations and charities, have been active in building mosques and exporting imams and teachers to various European cities, thereby propagating their brand of Wahhabi Islam. As well as these official centres, there are movements such as the Tabligh group, advocating a return to a more personalised religion, or the Muslim Brothers, a reform movement with a strong political component.
And most of the Muslim communities living in Switzerland have some degree of connection to their countries of origin. For example, those Islamic political divisions which surfaced during the civil war in Algeria during the 1990s and later, with the emergence of the FIS, are reflected in the politics of Algerians living in Switzerland today.
Finally, you should bear in mind that the generation gap is an important cause of fragmentation in the Muslim community. Those generations born and raised in Europe generally find the traditional culture and religion of their parents backward and restrictive. A European education makes them more proficient in the national languages, and generally more open to local customs. Such a gap can lead in quite different directions, ranging from assimilation to the dominant culture to a heightened religious identification. But, in both cases, the expectations of the younger generation are rather distinct from those of their parents.
Tensions also exist between the communities, with some groups vying for pre-eminence. Given the variety of communal interests, leadership rivalries and political orientations, as well as the distinctly Islamic tradition of religious pluralism, Muslims have difficulty in electing official representatives to government. Groups close to the Muslim Brothers exert their influence on the Islamic centres of Geneva, Bienne, Zurich and Vevey, while the World Islamic League, which is financed by Saudi Arabia and considers itself as apolitical, supports the Mosques of Geneva, Berne and Basel. The Muslim League of Switzerlandtries to organise the entire Islamic community, and claims to be the sole interlocutor with the government. But, despite its activism, it has not yet succeeded in forming an association representing all these groupings. Moreover, its rigorous approach is not always appreciated, in particular, by the Turkish and Albanian Islamic centres.
Public recognition of Islam
Muslims remain culturally marginalised. The Swiss constitution guarantees them freedom of religion, but many Muslims bemoan the lack of religious institutions, such as schools or a theological faculty to provide a centre for their worship. Islam in Switzerland tends to remain diasporic, meeting mainly in backyards, garages and shops. As a result, Muslims feel that the Swiss authorities are not sensitive enough to their religious and cultural values. At the same time, they have not avoided creating the popular impression in Switzerland that they do not really intend to integrate.
But it is important to distinguish between public recognition on one hand, and that of the authorities, on the other; and to look at ways in which a minority might relate to the state.
Muslims complain of not being accepted in Switzerland, and of what they see as a latent anti-Islamism. This feeling is mainly fuelled both by the exclusivist postures of some Christians and by secular hardliners. However, a survey conducted in 1998 by the University of Geneva, concluded that Islamophobia really did not exist in Switzerland, apart from in some isolated cases of discrimination (conditions for granting residencies and work permits for example).
Nevertheless, the events of 9/11 have brought to light previously existing problems between western and AraboIslamic cultures and perceptions, invoking allegations of a general clash of civilisations. Right or wrong, the fact remains that many people today tend so to mix up various causes and effects (Islam, violence, obscurantism, terrorism) that being Muslim is often taken to be a suspicious category in itself. As a result, many Swiss Muslims are afraid of owning up to their religious affiliation.
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Islam will become ghettoised in Switzerland in the same way that it has in some other countries. The danger exists. But Switzerland has a long tradition of tolerance and inter-cultural dialogue. We have four national languages and we are a multi-faith society. Moreover, our political system, with its twenty-six sovereign cantons and half-cantons, is decentralised.
Recognition by the authorities
One stated objective of the Islamic Cultural Foundation in Geneva is that Islam should be declared an official religion by Swiss authorities. Ismail Amine, President of the Muslim Organisations of Zurich, echoes this position:
This status will allow us to establish a real institution; to create a chair in Muslim sciences at the faculty of theology, one in the German part, another in the French part of Switzerland. These chairs will be financed by the Swiss authorities, as are the chairs in Hebraïc and Christian studies. Also to collect a tax, like the ecclesiastic tax for the churches; to establish a cemetery where the Muslims could be buried according to the Muslim tradition.
But in Switzerland, there are complications. The Confederation doesnt recognise any religion in particular. It has deprived the two main religious communities in the country Protestant and Catholic of their prerogatives as far as civil status, marriage, jurisdiction and burial are concerned. Article 72 of the Swiss Constitution stipulates that the regulation of the relations between the Church and the State falls within the jurisdiction of the Cantons (by Church, it means religious communities in general).
In others words, each Canton has the responsibility to regulate its own relations with the different religious communities, although all have to comply with certain fundamental rights, in particular the freedom of conscience and belief. But what they will recognise, in giving them a legal status as a public entity, is not a religion but a religious community. This is a serious problem for Muslims in Switzerland, since they have no representative body nor are they homogeneous. Their only recourse is to the Swiss Civil Code, which allows Muslims to constitute themselves on the communal, cantonal or federal level, as a foundation governed by private law. This is a right guaranteed by the Constitution not only for Swiss citizens, but also for foreigners.
How do Muslims feel?
It is difficult to know how Muslims in Switzerland feel. Their complaints are generally related to unemployment and exclusion, to their negative media image and to their difficulties in integrating into society, while upholding their Islamic values. Their main demands are that Islam should be recognised and institutionalised in Switzerland, guaranteeing a greater freedom of religious expression, and that that they should have access to Islamic cemeteries and Koranic schools for Muslim children.
Hani Ramadan, imam and director of the Islamic Centre of Geneva, argues that the system based on democracy and human rights has created a political vacuum and this vacuum has now to be filled in by religion. He goes further: The return to Christianity could be a solution, but Christian religion has completely withdrawn from the state. As for Judaism, it has remained attached to the idea of an elected race, considerably reducing the impact of its message. Therefore, Islam is the sole religion capable of promoting a faith, a morality, a system of laws and a government which advocates the sovereignty of the divine law.
In the opinion of the most fervent Muslims, their customs and culture deserve to be taken much more seriously in Switzerland. The political authorities should adapt existing legislation to take account of their presence. The only question is: where to begin? There is little sense amongst them of the need to adapt to existing conditions and work in the margins of the current legislation to achieve incremental change.
Tariq Ramadan, brother of Hani Ramadan (though representing a very different voice within the Muslim community) argues that Muslims should not be obliged to act against their conscience. Yes, you might respond, but where do you draw the line? Once you go down that path, you risk communities in Switzerland living side by side, but with different laws and courts.
The necessity of a dialogue: where to?
It would be a waste of time advocating peaceful co-existence between nations without first acknowledging their cultural diversity, and it is no less of a mistake to place a simple faith in the apparent similarities between western culture and Islamic culture.
All the participants in such a dialogue need to try and understand their co-locuters. Equally, to be successful, they must make the effort to see themselves clearly. This is not an easy task. To begin with, western countries are too often convinced that their own culture is the model culture, which all others should accept as a yardstick for modernity and progress. Meanwhile it is still the case, in the light of the long history of European colonisation of most Muslim countries by western powers, that the Crusades remain a symbol of an animosity leaving the false impression that people in the west have always been bent on destroying Islam.
Today, we are witnessing a crisis in cultural relations between the two. There seems to be an orchestrated campaign to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims. The rise of religious extremism in some Muslim countries and the violence that some marginal groups do practise have provided ample excuse to those portraying Islam as a reactionary religion that cannot fit into the new club of civilised nations.
A new, positive relationship would have to begin by people on both sides being able to lay these recriminations and memories on the table, while recognising that the world has in fact changed. The existing dialogue between intellectual elites in the west and in the Muslim world cannot afford to overlook the crisis in which all believers currently find themselves, regardless of their religious affiliation.
In Switzerland, one such process of dialogue at least is under way. I participate in the Working Group Islam, founded in 2001 by the Swiss Bishops Conference. Let me give you a taste of our current plans.
Our first task is to work on an agenda for a joint dialogue based on identifying the common values shared by the two cultures. The intelligentsia on both sides need to take up the fight against cultural and religious fanaticism. Religious leaders in particular are called upon to engage in a campaign advocating tolerance, mutual recognition and respect. There is work to do in revising school textbooks to remove comments about either sides culture, religion or ways of life, which give offence and to make sure that all are included. It is necessary to instil into the media a sense of responsibility in projecting the images of other civilisations and cultures, in order to engage in a positive and constructive campaign to rectify the damage caused over generations by insensitivity to the cultural rights of other peoples.
More immediately, we should be able to turn to Muslim spiritual guides educated in Europe rather than those countries with which migrants have lost most of their connections. Dialogue needs to be organised not only at the global level, but also locally, in order to create good neighbourly relations. And if interfaith dialogue is to flourish, the Muslim community in Switzerland must become better organised.
Final reflections
Coverage of the terrorist attacks in the United States, by politicians and the media alike, has singled Muslims out as the new damned of the earth, and made dialogue even more urgent. It will without doubt take time to repair the damage caused by this strong linkage of Islam together with violence and terrorism.
Moreover, the appeal held out by the radical Islamist position is certainly not confined either to organised groups or to the terrorists. It also strikes a chord with numerous disaffected young Muslims in particular. In Switzerland this was largely confined to the level of sentiment, and did not reach the level of organisation and mobilisation. The great majority of such youngsters are not active in politics. If they are, they tend to be concerned with local and national issues rather than global confrontation. But the risk of things getting out of control remains.
Those politically or socially active Muslims in Swiss society who do have a high public profile often take up confrontational positions on the status of woman or the sharia for example. This is another cause for concern for mainstream Muslims, because it colours public perceptions of Islam and reinforces racist stereotypes. Community leaders need to put much more emphasis, both in talking to their co-religionists and to the public in general, on Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance.
After the tragedy in the US, security measures were taken all over the world, including in Switzerland. Clearly this security policy was justified to some extent. But as a policy approach in the longer term, it will provoke serious tensions if no distinction continues to be made between radical and moderate Muslim movements.
Finally, one should not forget that religious questions have an existential meaning for all believers and herein lies an even more profound challenge for our modern societies.
