Swiss radical right sparks anger with anti-Muslim adverts

SWITZERLAND is almost as renowned for its right-wing politics as it is for its mountains, cheese and neutrality.

But now its most radical party of the right has outraged anti-racism groups and Muslim communities by painting a future of the country with a Muslim majority by 2040 in a campaign against a ballot to relax immigration laws.

The anti-Muslim adverts, with the hard-hitting title "Muslims soon the majority", have been posted in newspapers by the right-wing group Committee against Mass Naturalisations.

The controversial adverts caused outrage as they were published less than three weeks before the country is due to vote on easing restrictions on Swiss citizenship for second and third generation foreigners.

The adverts claim that the number of Muslims in Switzerland is doubling every 10 years and by 2040 they would make up 72% of the population.

The right-wing People’s Party, which controls among others the Justice Ministry, has been linked to the Committee against Mass Naturalisations, but denies reports that it finances the group.

People’s Party spokesman Roman Jaeggi said: "We do not have any official connections with the committee, but we do think the advert is positive because it’s important to inform the population ahead of the vote on September 26. It’s helping us in our campaign."

The party has carried out its own controversial campaign to win support against the upcoming referendum. Leaflets handed out around the country show a box full of Swiss passports and coloured hands trying to grab them.

Last year the party launched a similar campaign to persuade voters to block the recognition of Islam as an official Swiss religion. It warned that contributions made to all recognised religions by the state would be used by Muslims to set up Koran schools where fundamentalism would be taught.

At that time party literature showed a montage of Zurich’s famous Grossmnster, or Great Munster, church with its tower replaced by a minaret and the words "it’s a question of time".

Gioia Weber from the Federal Commission against Racism criticised the campaign.

"It’s surely not advisable to publish false allegations like those which say that ‘Koran schools’ would be financed by taxpayers’ money. Tarring whole sections of society with the same brush borders on discrimination; it’s unfair," she said.

But despite heavy criticism, anti-racism groups are doing little to stop the adverts, and even the Muslim community have said they are not going to make a formal complaint against the latest adverts, although they do admit to being "hurt" by the campaign.

Muslims currently make up 4.3% of the population, with Catholics still being the largest religious group at 42%, followed by Protestants, 35.2%, Orthodox, 1.8%, Jews, 0.2% and other religions 5.5%. Eleven per cent of Swiss say they have no religious affiliation.