On the 8th of July 2008 the right-wing Swiss People’s Party and a small ultra-conservative Christian party presented an initiative to the Government with 114, 895 signatures demanding the ban of the construction of minarets to be added to the Swiss Federal constitution which gave the Swiss citizens opportunity to vote on it on 29 November 2009.
In his recently published book, Les Minarets de la Discorde. Eclairages sur un débat suisse et européen , which discusses the controversy around minarets in Switzerland, Dr. Patrick Haenni gives an overview about the current debates on Islam in the West. Mr. Haenni takes this initiative as the starting point to highlight an overwhelming atmosphere of fear from any Islamic feature spread in Europe.
Patrick Haenni holds a BA degree in political science from the University of Lausanne. Dr. Haenni has got his PhD degree from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He received the best PhD prize on his studies on Islamic world in 2001. He worked as a researcher at the CEDEJ in Cairo. Patrick’s main interest is to show the link between the observed religious reality in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world on one hand and the other reality found in the European societies. Patrick has authored numerous studies on the process of Islamization in Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Yemen, Afghanistan, as well as in the West.
IslamOnline.net, European Muslims Zone is hosting Mr. Patrick Haenni to a Live Dialogue session on Wednesday, 4 November 2009, to answer all the pressing questions on the issue of minaret ban in Switzerland, with special focus on the historical and local background.
You are all invited to join us live at 14:00 Makkah time, 11:00 GMT, or send us your questions ahead of time through European Muslims' e-mail.
On the 8th of July 2008 the right-wing Swiss People’s Party and a small ultra-conservative Christian party presented an initiative to the Government with 114, 895 signatures demanding the ban of the construction of minarets to be added to the Swiss Federal constitution which gave the Swiss citizens opportunity to vote on it on 29 November 2009.
