Islam in Switzerland - Mosques

Mosques

Further information: Minaret controversy in Switzerland

There are two Swiss mosques which predate 1980 and the rapid increase of immigration of Muslims from the Balkans and Turkey over the following decades. These are the Ahmadiyya mosque in Zurich, built in 1963 and also boasting the first minaret built in Switzerland, and a Saudi-financed mosque in Geneva, built in 1978. Today, there are numerous further mosques and prayer rooms across the country, predominantly in the urban parts of the Swiss plateau.

In 2007 the Bern city council rejected plans to build one of the largest Islamic cultural centers in Europe.

Four Swiss mosques have minarets, besides the Zurich and Geneva mosques mentioned above, these are a mosque in Winterthur and a mosque in Wangen bei Olten. The latter was erected in 2009 following several years of political and legal disputes. In the wake of the Wangen minaret controversy, a popular initiative was passed with 57.5% of the popular vote in November 2009, introducing a ban on the construction of new minarets. The four existing minarets are not affected by the ban. Although the Swiss People's Party received the popular vote, their campaign was particularly shocked by the conversion of Daniel Streich to Islam, Daniel was a council member within the party. The campaign also prompted concerns from other countries of how the Swiss electorate is increasingly shifting towards the far-right.