Islam is the second largest
religion in Europe today. In spite of periodic persecution and
discrimination, Islam seems to be not only surviving but also steadily
growing in numbers in terms of converts and influence. The Muslims in
Western Europe are those who immigrated from Africa, the Middle East and
the South Asian subcontinent after the Second World War due to manpower
shortages and industrial growth. The migrated Muslims kept their
cultural, religious and ethnic links with their mother countries and
never integrated themselves to the country they migrated to. The Muslim
community in Switzerland is growing at an alarming rate in the past few
years. Official figures suggest the Muslim population has doubled in
recent years, but some sources say there are also about 50,000 Muslims
in the country illegally staying. The first Muslims arrived as workers
in the 1960s, mostly from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia and Albania.
They were joined by their families in the 1970s and, in recent years, by
asylum seekers. Since then there is no looking back to these migrants,
over years the population has grown. Over the years the population has
multiplied in numbers with each family of Islam followers bearing 5-6
numbers of children compared to the Switzerland natives bearing one or
maximum two children, making the population ration tilting towards to
the Muslim population.
With this alarming growth in population between the natives and the
migrant community it is expected that the Christian majority of
Switzerland would turn into minority within 5 to 10 years. The growing
immigrant population has reached a level of extended settlement that now
demands no assimilation with the country. Leading Islamic groups in
Switzerland are seeking to establish a single national representative
body that will enable all of the country’s Muslims to “speak with one
voice.” The organizers say their new “parliament” will be called “Umma
Schweiz” and be based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law. Reports
suggested by the government agencies where the religious minority has
much representation in the country to stand for its own demands from the
nation. Contesting a parallel government is one such approach of the
group to establish their foothold in the nation, it was to be functional
by the year 2015. Ummah is an Arabic word that means “nation”, in this
context it refers to the entire Muslim community throughout the world.
In recent years, Muslims have stepped up efforts to unify the globally
fragmented ummah in an effort to revive an “Islamic Caliphate” or “the
empire”. Many Muslim scholars view the political unification of the
ummah as a prerequisite to the consolidation of global Muslim power and
the subsequent establishment of an Islamic world order. One of the “not
spoken” agenda’s of “Umma Schweiz” is to attract a big vote bank in the
Swiss elections and in the long run act as a political party.
According to Swiss analysts reports the initiative was an effort to
establish a “parallel” legislative body in Switzerland that will be a
mouthpiece for Islamic fundamentalists who are seeking to impose Sharia
law on the country. Umma Schweiz is being spearheaded by two of the
leading Muslim groups in Switzerland: the Coordination of Islamic
Organizations of Switzerland (KIOS), led by an Iranian; and the
Federation of Islamic Umbrella Organizations in Switzerland (FIDS), led
by a Palestinian.
The effort to unify Muslims in Switzerland comes amid
calls by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
to establish an umbrella organization for all Swiss Muslims to counter
discrimination. The OSCE also noted that Muslims in Switzerland are
increasingly unifying around their religious identity, according to an
advance copy of the OSCE trip report. Currently, there are more than 300
Muslim associations in Switzerland, and several umbrella organizations.
The new Muslim demographic reality is raising tensions across large
parts of Swiss society, especially as Muslims become more assertive in
their demands for greater recognition of their Islamic faith. When in
2011, the immigrant population demanded the Switzerland government to
modify the national flag and remove the cross from the flag as it
represents the Christian community. The ensuing controversies are
fuelling a debate over the role of Islam in Swiss society and how to
reconcile Western values with a growing immigrant population determined
to avoid assimilation.
There are several cases of Mosques inciting
hatred against the neutrality of the Swiss Government and forcing the
Swiss government to take stand on the current killings of Muslims in
Middle East by west forces.
It is a big problem for the nation when the immigrant population has
grown in equal strength to the locals and has put forward it demand for
ethnic and cultural identity, extremism would take no time flourish
under such circumstances. The issues like honor killing, forced
marriages, erection of minarets and creation of religious parliaments
are the ones which came into light and got attention of the government
but same attitude cannot be attributed to problems like spreading
radical ideology in that case. It is necessary that the government
becomes vigilant about such situations and cures the root cause of such
ethnic diversity.
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