GENEVA,
June 4 (IslamOnline) - World soccer Cup has not kept Swiss Muslims
from celebrating the end of academic year 2001/02 and their
children’s success as one step forward on the way of bolstering
Islamic presence in Confoederatio Helvetica.
The
Islamic Center in Geneva - a non-governmental organization (NGO) -
this week organized a religious and artistic festival, with the
majority of performances designed for the children’s pleasure.
Children poured into the festival from Geneva and nearby cities,
particularly Leon and Lausanne, two French-speaking cities with a
Muslim minority of North African origins.
The
festival, designed to celebrate the end of a successful academic year
for Muslim primary and preparatory students, presented a variety of
religious, cultural and artistic performances, including hymns,
competitions and group games.
The
festival organizers presented an exhibition of Islamic books and
documents in three different languages: Arabic, English and French.
They also organized an exhibition of traditional industries in a
number of Islamic countries. The best selling item was the Palestinian
scarf which is very popular with Swiss Muslims regardless of their
national loyalties.
The
festival further presented group meals which brought together Muslims
from different parts of Switzerland.
In
an interview with IslamOnline’s correspondent (who was on a visit to
Geneva), the Imam of the Mosque of the Islamic Cultural Institute in
Geneva, Rashid Mohammed Farahat said: “Swiss Muslims believe
children should have first priority since they represent the hope for
the Muslim minority. If we succeed in bringing our children up in a
healthy Islamic way, we are helping build a better future for all
Muslims here.”
“The
greatest challenge facing Swiss Muslims is to give their children a
good Islamic education beside the official French, German and Italian
curricula supported by all Swiss states,” added Farahat, a Muslim of
Libyan origin.
“The
school of the Islamic Cultural Institute, which teaches Arabic and
Islamic studies, has 550 boys and girls from Geneva and other cities,
including French towns and villages on the Swiss borders,” he added.
“But the number is still so small compared to the school’s
capacity.”
Farahat
asked Arab and Islamic countries to give more support to the Islamic
educational institutions in Switzerland, in order to help maintain the
Islamic identity of the Muslim minority there.
The
Muslim population in Switzerland has been growing, with the number
rising from 16,000 in 1970 to over 200,000 in 2002. The majority of
them come from Turkey and North Africa, and live in all 26 cantons in
Switzerland.
Muslim
activists in Switzerland confirmed to IslamOnline that unlike the case
in the U.S. and many other European countries, there have been no
assaults against Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
This has reassured Muslims there of a safe future in a country that
upholds the principles of tolerance and neutrality
