SWITZERLAND

As in many other European countries, it was the Ahmadiyya movement which first brought a Muslim presence to Switzerland. Based in Zürich since the end of the nineteenth century, it built up its work on a Europe-wide scale, though with only minimal impact in Switzerland itself. It was only when a mosque was constructed in Zürich in 1963 that the Swiss public paid attention, with fears being expressed that the intention was to make Switzerland Muslim. Reactions were more muted when another mosque was built in Geneva, funded by Muslim governments, especially that of Saudi Arabia, intended to serve the Muslim community attached to the various international organisations based there.

Both of these ventures remained generally isolated from Swiss society. The period of labour migration which led to the creation of a larger Muslim community came significantly later than elsewhere. Only in the late 1960s did Switzerland begin to experience a major immigration of workers from Muslim countries, primarily from Turkey and southern Yugoslavia into the northern, German-speaking areas, and from North Africa mainly into the French-speaking areas. In the late 1970s, Switzerland allowed family reunification, paving the way for a second wave of immigration. With this growth in the Muslim community has come a greatly increased activity of organisations and mosques, which have made themselves noticed in native Swiss society to a degree that was not the case with the older centres in Zürich and Geneva.

Starting in 1850, Switzerland has a long tradition of carrying out national censuses every ten year. Since 2000, this has been done annually through estimations using local government registries. The census of 1980 recorded 56,625 Muslims living in Switzerland. In between censuses, one has to rely on regular publication of numbers of foreign residents. If 95 per cent of Turks are Muslim, then there were 54,000 Turkish Muslims in the country at the end of 1988. Possibly around 20,000 Yugoslav Muslims, representing 20 per cent of all Yugoslavs, 12,000 North Africans and about 5,000 Swiss citizens should also be added. Swiss labour law makes room for large numbers of seasonal workers, who particularly tend to come from ex-Yugoslavia.