About 57.5% of the voters in a national referendum approved the ban on the construction of new mosque minarets on Muslim places of worship.

The result delighted right wing parties but alarmed the government as it will create damage for the neutral position reputation of the small alpine country. The government and the economic sector are worrying about the international backlash that the controversial results may bring.

The Swiss nation has a 350,000 Muslim population. They only have four minarets in the mosques of the country. The leaders of the nation’s Islamic community cannot comprehend on how the construction of the minarets would equate the Sharia or Islamic Law. This is the proposition of the law that bans the construction – that the minaret is “a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights.”

Though the ban is respected by the Swiss Federal Council as the voice of the people, it is however viewed as a violation on international laws and rights for religious freedom.