RELIGIOUS INTEGRATION
Almost two-thirds of people living in Switzerland do not think Islam should be recognised as an official Swiss religion, according to a survey. A similar proportion believes there is no place for Islam in the country.
Asked whether Islam should be granted the same official status as Christianity and Judaism, 61% of 15,617 respondents said “no” or “probably no” in what the Swiss News Agency reports was a representative survey carried out by the Tamedia publishing house. The results were published in Le Matin Dimanche and the SonntagsZeitung.
Of those who were open to a third official religion, 19% said “yes” and 20% “probably yes”.
Almost two-thirds (62%) said there was no place in Switzerland for Islam. In addition, 80% thought Christian values were part of the Swiss identity.
In August, the president of the leftwing Social Democrat Party called for a discussion about the status of Islam in the country.
“We should think about whether we want to recognise Islam as an official religion so that we don’t leave the training and financing of imams to foreign and perhaps fundamental circles,” Christian Levrat told the SonntagsZeitung.
“We must ask the question about whether there can be a Swiss Islam.”
Cantonal matter
It is now up to the cantons to reflect on this because the relationship between state and religion comes under their remit, according to Switzerland’s federal system.
The survey comes as an imam at a mosque north of Zurich has become the subject of a criminal investigation, suspected of inciting violence. Also, signatures are being collected for an initiative that calls for a nationwide burka ban. Italian-speaking canton Ticino is the only place where a burka ban is in force.
Some 5% of Swiss residents aged over 15 are Muslim, according to Federal Statistical Office figures for 2012-2014; 38% are Roman Catholic, 26.2% Protestant and 22.2% say they have no religious affiliation. Switzerland’s 20,000 Jews make up around 0.25% of the resident population.
What do you think? Should Islam be recognised as an official Swiss religion?
Talk show controversy
The media in Germany have questioned a controversial appearance on a leading Sunday evening talk show, Anne Will (public television channel ARD) by a niqab-wearing Swiss woman representing the radical Islamic Central Council of Switzerland.
The newspaper “Die Welt” criticised the programme as “propaganda for IS [Islamic State]” while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described the woman, Nora Illi, as “the perfect propagandist of a nihilistic, annihilation cult because she presents oppression – particularly of women – as liberation”.
Other invited guests, including a politician from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party and an expert on Islam, harshly criticised the decision to give Illi a platform on German public television.
SOURCE: WWW.SWISSINFO.CH
Categories: Europe, Europe and Australia, Switzerland
Whether Switzerland ‘recognizes’ Islam as a religion or not: It is a world religion. And it has been part of Europe for a long time. Islam will not ‘go away’ when some Swiss just ‘wish it’. Therefore, yes, let’s just be realistic and pragmatic and recognize facts of life. It will be better for integration and peaceful cooperation. And … by the way. The Mahmud Moschee in Zurich has been there for over 50 years. Ask the neighbors, they will all confirm that it is fully integrated and peaceful.
Actually I am for separation of religion and state. Therefore I am not ‘pushing’ for the recognition of ‘Islam’ as a State Religion. The problem is ‘which Islam’? or rather ‘which Islamic Organization’. In Germany the only Islamic Organization which is accepted as a State Religion in some States is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (the same community that runs the Mahmud Mosque in Zurich). That is fine, but of course takes care of only a small part of the Muslims. Consequently it is better to just leave ‘religion and state’ separate. Not for ‘Brunzlie’s’ reason, but just for pragmatism.
The first comment was rejected by http://www.swissinfo.ch. dont’ know why. In the second comment the last sentence refers to a comment by ‘brunzlie’, who just made some silly and hateful comments regarding Islam.
‘Swiss against Islam as an official religion’ – ‘Islam should be granted the same official status as Christianity’ – ‘Judaism’ is the poison in both. Quote: “old wine (judaism), in new (Bible and Qur’an), glasses – check with Clerics, compare contents of all three.
The Word Islam comes from the Root word Salam which means peace. That is how Muslims greets each other saying Salam Alaeykum(Peace be Upon you) or when Jewish brothers say “Shalom(Peace) It is the 21st century but many people still live in darkness. instead of searching for real the truth, they have been following the way they have been brainwashed on. Islam is the final celestial religion which have come for all mankind, for any time till doomsday and any where. Islam is the terminator of all other religions. people have to search for the truth. they should not decide based on their prejudice, bias and story-typing. DO NOT DECIDE THE WAY YOU THINK FIND THE TRUTH THEN DECIDE.
When sister of the former British PM and so many women returned to Islam some inquisitive students begun to ask, why the West comes to Islam despite deliberate distortion in the Media and constant sponsorship against Islam? As a reminder, Pharaoh killed male children but Moses was brought up in his house. Allah guides whom so ever He wishes.
Islam is undefeatable! You cannot extinguish the Light of Almighty Allah! educate yourselves on Islam before it’s too late. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Step out of your comfort zone and ask yourself why is Islam always being demonized by the media. Why isn’t anything good being told about Islam? Do you honestly think you know all there is to Islam. It is the fastest growing religion in the world. More women convert in Europe than men. Yet Islam oppresses women?
Islam says that it is a duty for every Muslim to recognize and respect Jesus, Moses, and all true prophets and their true teachings. This is repeatedly recorded in the Holy Qur’an:
The Christians who were in contact with the Muslims in the early days of Islam observed the great respect the Muslims had for Jesus. As a result, millions of them embraced Islam, not because they wanted to abandon the teaching of Jesus, but because they wanted to continue their adherence to his true teaching within the coherent teaching of Islam.
Islam is the fastest growing faith in Britain. Hundreds and thousands of Brits are reverting to Islam. By the middle of this century, over half of Brits would be Muslims.
The Orientologist Bernard Lewis said that, by 2100, England will be an Islamic country in terms of its education system, its population, the predominance of religion, the rollout of Islamic law. It has already happened in towns and areas of big cities.
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“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of
its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to
possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which
can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him – the wonderful man
and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the
Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the
dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems
in a way that would bring it the much
needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad
that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to
be acceptable to the Europe of today.” [G.B. Shaw, THE GENUINE ISLAM, Vol.
1, No. 81936.]
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk