Mock Swiss minaret attracts worldwide attention

From Los Angeles to Pakistan via Doha and beyond, the protest action of Guillaume ‘Toto’ Morand is catching the headlines. Following the surprising 57 per cent vote in favor of the ban on minarets by the Swiss population on 29 November, Morand decided to defy the ban by building a life-size mock minaret on his own rooftop.

“The government and all the political parties, save the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) who sponsored it, were against the initiative. But nobody actually stood up and resisted it,” he explains.

According to Morand, the government was too busy opposing another popular initiative put to the vote on the same day that was attempting to block Switzerland’s export of arms. Economic interests primed over social and political ones, he believes. “They did not take the threat of a ban on minarets seriously enough.”

“The fact that Switzerland does seven per cent of its foreign trade with Muslim countries doesn’t seem to have crossed their minds!” Morand adds.

“As for the political parties, they covered themselves in ridicule when the results became known. Instead of responding vigorously and saying ‘Stop’, they only pandered to the majority vote.”

He was particularly incensed when the head of the Swiss socialist party, Christian Levrat, declared that he understood the motivation of one of the leaders of the initiative and Christophe Darbellay, president of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC) added insult to injury by suggested immediately after the vote that burkas or veils worn by some Muslim women should be banned as well.

Morand who heads a trendy shoe empire in Switzerland is a hyperactive, but soft-spoken businessman who frequently rails against political incompetence. In 2008, he actively opposed the city of Lausanne’s decision to import rubbish to amortise its recently opened Tridel incinerator.

Accused of being a self-publicist by the SVP who claims that his main objective is to boost sales, Morand says that the allegation is unfair. “Mine is a niche market (Converses and other glamour sneakers) and since my shops are already all over the country, there is little room for expansion” he says.

He also felt the need to counterbalance the media coverage that the SVP was receiving, particularly the party's Oscar Freysinger who declared, including to the Al Jazeera Arab TV news network, that he had “nothing against Muslims”.

Immediately after the results of the vote had come through, Morand and a longtime colleague, Serge Forni, decided that a symbolic gesture was necessary, so over the next week Forni disappeared into the basement to build the make-believe minaret.

The 25-metre tall minaret was attached to the chimney above Morand’s headquarters on 8 December and received immediate and far-reaching media attention.

The Los Angeles Times refers half-jokingly to Morand’s defiance as “practically an act of terrorism”. The Wall Street Journal has sent a correspondent to Bussigny for an in-depth article to be published in due course.

Britain's TimesOnline indicates that although the minaret will not be used to summon Muslims to prayer, its very “construction could lead to the first legal wrangle over the ban”. But Morand is confident that it will be allowed to remain, although the materials of which it is made, plastic, wood and sprayed gold paint, will not have a long life.

“But to ban it would just mean further negative publicity for Switzerland,” he says.

Jeune Afrique, Arab News, Khilafah.com and El Watan belong on the ever-increasing list of media interested by the “non Muslim Swiss who did not take no as an answer” as IslamOnline portrays him.

“In my view, the vote wasn’t even legal,” Morand explains.

Hafid Ouardiri, the former spokesperson for the Geneva mosque has in fact announced this week that he is appealing to the European court in Strasbourg on the grounds that the motion voted is incompatible with the European convention on human rights.

The outcome of the vote was due to a “mix between ignorance and fear, as well as confusion between Islam and terrorism,” Morand claims, one that right wing parties everywhere are exploiting.

“Sarkozy is no exception. He has taken advantage of the situation to swing his own party back to the right by showing sympathy for issues that are usually only defended by the extreme-right party of Jean-Marie Le Pen.  After all, with four Socialists in his government and a Socialist wife, he needs to reassure his voters!” he says.

“Switzerland has a long history of welcoming foreigners, including people of the Islam faith” Morand says. “We have always lived in harmony. The ban on minarets has created a problem that doesn’t even exist.”

“I just want to make it known that a great many people in Switzerland hope that the ban will be banned,” he stresses.