Minarets in Switzerland

Swiss voters have been deciding in a referendum Sunday whether to accept a ban on the construction of minarets, which right-wing parties regard as symbols of militant Islam.

The move, led by the Swiss People's Party, which has campaigned in previous years against immigrants, has stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries.

Swiss voters approved a move to ban the construction of minarets in a Sunday vote on a right-wing initiative that labeled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a widely respected polling institute showed.

The projections based on partial returns say Swiss swung from only 37 percent supporting the proposal a week ago to 59 percent in the actual voting.

This is one of those profoundly illiberal bans that doesn’t do anyone any good. Let’s say you wanted to tackle extremism amongst Muslims, or improve the lot of Muslim women. How would banning minarets help? What effect can this have apart from to make Muslims feel under attack and give them more incentive to withdraw into their own world? More minarets won’t lead to more extremism, but this referendum will.