Abstract
Chapter 3 shows how the Canton of Zurich fosters the welfare programmes of religious organisations by financing religious social services. The Islamic organisations in the canton are very well integrated into interfaith activities and are confederated in a pro-active cantonal confederation. The purpose of this confederation is to obtain recognition such as that enjoyed by other religions. In fact, Islamic organisations are not recognised by the Canton of Zurich in contrast to Reformed, Catholic and Old Catholic churches, and Jewish organisations. The Islamic organisations develop numerous activities designed to foster the successful integration of the second-generation in the public schools. Islamic organisations combat discrimination on the part of the media and political parties by fostering a high level of education among their younger members.
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Notes
- 1.
The Aḥmadiyyah is an Islamic reformist movement that originated in Pakistan during the nineteenth century. The movement was present at an international level, providing, for instance, the backbone to the Islamic engaged Afro-American movement for civil rights at the beginning of the twentieth century.
- 2.
The SIGZ includes members mainly from Somalia, Germany, and the Arab countries, and the Islamic Centre of Zurich includes members mainly from Morocco, Switzerland, and Pakistan.
- 3.
The Diyanet, the Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs, was officially established in 1924 in Turkey after the abolition of the caliphate for structuring Islamic worship in the Turkish public space with respect to a republican version of the Islamic practice. After 2003, the AKP party changed the republican nature of the Diyanet.
- 4.
See Federal Office for Migration. Available at: https://www.bfm.admin.ch//content/dam/data/migration/rechtsgrundlagen/weisungen_und_kreisschreiben/weisungen_anag/weisungen_1106_d.pdf. (22.02.2017).
- 5.
- 6.
The city of Zurich is an example of the resistance of Swiss nationals to concede voting rights to immigrants, even at the municipal level. In Switzerland, passive and active voting rights at the federal level and the right to participate in federal referendums and initiatives are limited by the Constitution to Swiss citizens (art. 136, 143, and 150). A proposal to change this part of the constitution was rejected in 2001. However, in the Federal Constitution (art. 36, par. 1), the power to grant political rights at the cantonal and municipal levels is assigned to cantons. For this reason, foreigners may be eligible for the Council of States (Federal Constitution art. 150, par. 3) because cantons are able to decide the rules for the election of their deputies in the Council of States. Although many cantons have refused to grant active or passive voting rights to immigrant residents over the last three decades, many others have adopted the constitutional possibility for municipalities to grant passive and active voting rights to foreigners due to the reform of their cantonal constitution. In Geneva, in 2005, a popular initiative allowed the constitutional ability for municipalities. On the contrary, in the canton of Zurich, the same initiative for granting the passive vote to immigrants was rejected in 1993 and in 2007 (Voigt 2009) and later in 2013.
- 7.
Resident population aged 15 or older by religious affiliation in 2010 in the city and canton of Zurich (Structural Survey of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office).
- 8.
After unsuccessful attempts to structure public policies to include immigrants in the 1970s, in 1979, a member of the municipal council, Max Bryner, proposed the creation of the Parliament of Foreigners, an advisory council of immigrants composed of Swiss citizens (15) and immigrants (38) elected by their communities (Cattacin and Kaya 2005). The project was blocked by a popular initiative conducted by the National Action Party, which was already fighting against the Islamic presence in Zurich. The city only reconsidered and implemented the project in 2005. Only in 2011, the pilot project was evaluated as successful and was subsequently renewed.
- 9.
In 1974, the most representative immigrant organisations and the Protestant Social Centre founded the Contact Centre for the Swiss and Immigrants (Centre de Contact Suisses-Immigrés Genève—CCSI) to confront attacks from the extreme right against immigrants as well as the discriminatory consequences of immigrant policies. The CCSI organised an unsuccessful campaign for the abolition of seasonal permits and the stabilisation of migratory quotas. In 1980, the president of CCSI, Berthier Perregaux, deputy of the municipal council of Geneva, proposed to grant municipal voting rights to immigrants. At the same time, Free Italian Colonies (Colonie Libere Italiane—CLI) and the Association of the Spanish Emigrant Workers in Switzerland (Association des Travailleurs Espagnols Emigrés en Suisse—ATEES) promoted a cantonal petition by gathering 100,000 signatures for the same purpose. For this reason, in 1983, the State Council created and financed the Community Working for Integrating Foreigners (Communauté de travail pour l’intégration des étrangers). In the last two decades, the State Council has financed many immigrant organisations that implement inclusive policies in the canton. Finally, in 2005, a popular initiative provided the constitutional possibility for municipalities to grant active voting rights to foreigners who have resided at least eight years in the canton (Voigt 2009).
- 10.
The typology of state recognition must be reconciled with typologies of religious taxes that each canton authorises. There are two ecclesiastical taxes: the ecclesiastical tax for moral entities (enterprises) and the ecclesiastical tax for individuals. Usually, cantons that have recognised the status of public rights to certain denominations impose both taxes, but the variety of possible interactions is as great as the cantonal institutional variety. In addition to the two taxes, some cantons provide state subsidies to pay clergy. To summarise, public financing in Switzerland for religious communities comes from public church taxes, state subsidies for religious or social activities, and state subsidies for national churches or the restoration of religious buildings (Marti et al. 2010).
- 11.
In some cantons, the Christian Catholic Church has the same status, whereas the Israelite community has the status of public rights without fiscal sovereignty. The Evangelic Reformed Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Christian Catholic Church are considered institutions of public interest in the canton of Neuchatel, whereas only the first two are similarly recognised in Geneva. In both cantons, Geneva and Neuchatel, the separation between church and state is highly developed. Conversely, the canton of Vaud grants the status of public right to the Evangelic Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church but imposes the ecclesiastic tax for moral subjects and pays all expenses for cults and other ecclesiastic exigencies through cantonal and municipal taxes (Marti et al. 2010).
- 12.
Geneva retains many social services and private institutions, such as the General Hospice, that promote forms of social protection for the poorest and are structured through partnerships between private and public sectors. The Geneva system allows religions to be equal before state institutions, and the incentive is to cooperate with the professional services that already exist. The Muslim chaplain at the University Hospital of Geneva is an excellent example.
- 13.
In 1978, the Mosque of Geneva asked for an Islamic cemetery, and the following year it obtained from the municipality an Islamic burial area in the Petit-Saconnex cemetery. This exceptional right to a religious burial area was abolished in 1992. In 1992 and 1993, the municipal council asked the State Council to re-examine the question of a Muslim area of burial in Geneva. The requests did not receive an answer until 25 May 2007, when the State Council approved the new law concerning cemeteries that provide areas in Petit-Saconnex and Saint-Georges for Muslim and Jewish communities as well as a Jewish area in the cemetery in Veyrier.
- 14.
In fact, since 1990, in Italy a separate area of public cemeteries can be used to bury believers of non-Catholic religious communities. Furthermore, there are no laws that prevent perpetual burial. However, burial without a coffin is allowed only in the cemetery of Trieste. In Rome, the cemeteries establish a special area for foreign communities, and all religions are accepted. The Milan municipality has allowed Islamic cemeteries in Lambrate since 1982 and in Bruzzano since 1995.
- 15.
See socio-demographic data in Widmer and Strebel (2008).
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Banfi, E. (2018). Islamic Sociocultural Activism in Zurich. In: Welfare Activities by New Religious Actors . Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62096-1_3
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