Swiss Muslims expressed deep disappointment Saturday, June 2, at government rejection of plans to build Europe’s largest Islamic cultural and economic center in the capital city of Bern. The Umma group, which proposed the construction of the giant Islamic center, said it hoped that authorities would have a closer examination of the proposal and compared notes with Muslim leaders before turning down the project.
Muslims voiced fears that the Swiss authorities may have been influenced by the recent ferocious right-wing anti-Islam campaigns. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party and the Federal Democratic Union lunched a nationwide campaign to collect signatures to ban the construction of mosques with minarets.