Le Matin.
According to Le Matin, recent German government action against salafistes is pushing the Swiss authorities to act.
According to Tages Anzeiger, some Swiss towns have already taken action. The town of Brugg in the canton of Aargau banned distribution of the Quran in 2012. “It seems that radical islamists were behind it” explained the town’s president, “…we are quite restrictive generally, including scientology and Gideon bibles.”
Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland, Source: Wikipedia_Хрюша
Baden, another town in Aargau, adopted a different approach, allowing only two distribution permits per year per group. This reduced the presence of salafiste preachers on the streets, said the town’s president.
Currently, most German towns tolerate “recitations” on the street on the grounds of religious liberty. Salafistes are doing this on the streets of Zurich and Winterthur, which has not alway pleased the authorities, according to 20 Minuten.
The director of public security in Zurich, expressed no support for distribution of the Quran, but pointed out that there is no obvious way to ban it. He has asked external experts to look at ways of limiting the practice or even banning it. “We want to put those close to jihadists and promoters of violence out of action.”
National councillor Lukas Reimann thinks Switzerland is too lenient. “Germany cracked down, Austria banned foreign finance. Only Switzerland has failed to react.” When the Swiss government sits over winter, he is going to ask the Federal Council whether it plans to ban “recitations”. It is important to ensure those involved don’t go underground if there is a ban, he added.
In the meantime Swiss salafistes continue their activities. A man of Macedonian origin planned to distribute islamic texts in Basel last week, including audio books aimed at children. According to newspaper reports, the organisation behind the distribution was a German salafiste group called “We love Muhammad”, created to replace a group called “Die Wahre Religion”, which was banned in Germany.
More on this:
Read full Le Matin article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
Read full Tages Anzeiger article (in German)
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Mary says
I completely agree with everything you say Kevin. My brother attended a meeting about fifteen years ago. The preacher David Pawson was leading it. He told the group that the Christians were asleep & that if they didn’t wake up Britain would become Islamic. Never mind just Britain, the way things are going all of Europe will go that way. Then if we were allowed to we would hear the wails of the bearded men & covered women who have said open migration is fine & welcoming thousands of muslims is fine. But we wouldn’t hear their wails of complaint because they would not be allowed to speak out. The only wails to be heard would be prayers in the mosque or from punishment meted out to the disobedient by those in charge. It hardly takes a toddler to work out that our birth rate is in heavy decline but Muslim families are often large so they will multiply quickly. I think it’s already too late.
Kevin says
I should add, that there are no doubt a large number of Muslims in Europe who would themselves rather not be living under a Salafist ruled state – perhaps their families left such a country in search of a freer society or because of religious persecution. I have had conversations with people who were born into the Muslim faith who say that their beliefs are their own and something they cherish but they want the freedom that is given to them in a country where faith and religion are separated. I have also spoken to young people who have left Islam at great personal cost to themselves because they want personal freedom and the right to choose their path in life.
This is an important debate that has to take place in Europe without people being called racist. If we dont have this conversation the alt right and radicalism elements will take over the conversation on behalf of the majority and history shows us what happens then.