A library photo of Blick’s anti-Muslim ad

By Tamer Abul Einein, IOL Correspondent

GENEVA, January 2 (IslamOnline.net) – No sooner had Swiss Muslims launched campaigns to clear stereotypes and enter into dialogues to reach out to the non-Muslim citizens during 2004 than right-wing media and newspapers threw a spanner in the earnest works.

Swiss Muslims, however, remained determined to ride out the storm and demonstrate to the public that they were an integral part of society.

The right-wing, in a nutshell, failed to break their staunch stamina.

Day in and day out, headlines like “The Islamic Terror is Coming, “Country Vs. Radicalism”, “Islamists Living With Us,” “Hijab in Parliament” and “Swiss Funds for Islamic Terror” were splashed by newspapers.

A recently released study by Zurich University showed that Blick Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Facts, Le Matin, Le Temps and Welt Woche were among Swiss dailies and magazines that often launched vile campaigns against the Muslim community.

In March, mass-circulation Blick ran a front-page advertisement warning that the steady increase in the Muslim population would turn Switzerland into a Muslim country in 20 years’ time.

Despite strong response from Muslim and non-Muslim activists, like Abdel-Hafiz Al-Waridi, the spokesman for the Islamic Cultural Foundation, the vicious campaign continued non-stop.

A month later, the popular Round Show radio news program accused the Islamic Center in Zurich of being a breeding ground for radicalism and religious hatred after its imam Yusuf Ibram described hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as “war criminal and a vampire.”

The government later placed visa restrictions on imams coming to the country during the holy month of Ramadan except for Al-Azhar missions.

The Swiss radio further tried to pit Muslims against one another when it interviewed in April a veiled woman and another unveiled with the latter launching a sting criticism of hijab to the benefit of the moderator.

In November, a poll conducted by the Sonntagsblick newspaper showed that a clear majority of the Swiss people accepted hijab at workplace.

Furthermore, all hell break loose when Muslims opened their first cemetery in Zurich last June with right-wing newspapers warning that the Muslim minority was penetrating the Swiss society.

The attitude of negativity among the Muslim community toward the media onslaughts is also to blame.

They, however, realized the danger and decided in June to set up a press office to monitor newspapers and media outlets.

They further launched on June 24 a ten-day campaign to reach out to non-Muslims in the capital Geneva.

Intellectuals Targeted

Tariq Ramadan took the brunt of the media attacks

The media offensive was not confined to tarnishing the image of the Muslim community in general, but was further selective in blemishing the reputation of some leading figures.

Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies in the University of Fribourg, took the brunt of such campaigns.

“Should We Really Burn Out Tariq Ramadan?” Was one of the headlines splashed by L’Hebdo newspaper on October 28.

Other newspapers called the prominent Muslim intellectual “the prince of dualism,” and “the wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

The ferocious verbal attacks did not even spare Tariq’s brother Hani, who is the head of the Geneva Islamic Center.

The rightists unleashed a diatribe against the elder brother following his Le Monde’s article in which he defended the adultery punishment enshrined in Shari`ah.

The State Council decided on February 5, 2003 to sack Hani as a teacher of French language.

The Geneva Administrative Court, however, reinstated him in his job in April, deeming the decision as null and void and giving him 5,000 Swiss Francs in compensation.

The right-wing government defied the court’s verdict in an unprecedented move, saying it was ready to take the consequences.

Successful Politicians

The Muslim community, in spite of the tough year, were resolved to make their voice heard in society and had a positive political attitude.

Hassan Al-Arabia, the director of the Islamic Library in Kesswil, became in April the first Muslim deputy in the council of the southern city after winning the municipal election.

The Democratic Christian Party (PDC) in Switzerland decided in April to nominate two Muslim women, 20-year-old Nazia Siddiquie, of Pakistani origin, and Turkish-born Kadria Kusa, to stand in the municipal elections.

Though they failed to capture the required percentage of the vote, they fared well in the election.

Islam is the second religion in Switzerland after Christianity. The country is home to 350,000 Muslims representing a sizable 4.5 percent of the country’s some eight million people.

Forty-three percent of the Muslim community is of Turkish origin.