A file photo of Muslim graves in Switzerland.

By Tamer Abul Einein, IOL Correspondent

GENEVA, February 26, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Federation of Islamic Organizations (FIO) in the Swiss capital Bern condemned on Saturday, February 26, the desecration of Muslim graves in the city’s cemetery, asking the authorities to take concrete steps to protect Muslims.

“We are pretty sure that Swiss authorities will do their best to arrest those responsible and bring them to justice,” FIO’s chairman Ibrahim Salah told IslamOnline.net.

Salah regretted the “unprecedented” aggression, accusing “irresponsible” people of trying to copycat racist attacks against Muslims in other European cities.

He was referring to a string of attacks against Muslim figures and sites across Europe in the wake of the November killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, following his insulting documentary about Islam.

On Tuesday, February 22, unknown people removed 16 Muslim gravestones in Bern and tried in vain to dig out one of the bodies.

Many footsteps imprinted on the snow-blanketed area suggested that the attack was carried out by several people.

Swiss authorities were quick to restore the headstones and repair the damage caused by the saboteurs. They also launched a manhunt to track down the perpetrators.

Media to Blame

Sheikh Mostafa Mohmeti, the imam and director of the Islamic Center in Bern, blamed the media for the racist attack.

“It is a natural response to a blitz of ill-informed and subjective reports on Muslims circulated by Swiss media, fanning anti-Muslim sentiments,” Mohmeti told IOL.

But the Muslim activist urged the Muslim community to exercise utmost restraint and refuse to be provoked by the desecration.

“We must learn important lessons from the Muslim communities in other European countries and address the situation astutely,” he said.

Suleiman Abdel Kader, the chairman of the League of Muslims in Switzerland,  called on the Federal Bureau Against Racism to strongly denounce the attack “which violated the Swiss constitution and all ethics.”

The Muslim community in Switzerland was the subject of a ferocious media campaign by rightists last year.

Day in and day out, headlines like “The Islamic Terror is Coming”, “Country Vs. Radicalism”, “Islamists Living With Us,” “Hijab in Parliament” and “Swiss Funds for Islamic Terror” were splashed by newspapers.

Swiss Muslims, however, remained determined to ride out the storm and demonstrate to the public that they were an integral part of society.

Opinion polls showed in December that 60% of Muslims remained keen on performing their religious duties, with 84% of them feeling accepted by the society.

In November, a poll conducted by the Sonntagsblick newspaper showed that a clear majority of the Swiss people accepted the hijab at workplace.

Islam is the second religion in Switzerland after Christianity. The country is home to 350,000 Muslims representing a sizable 4.5 percent of the country’s some eight million people.

Forty-three percent of the Muslim community hails of Turkish origin.