A quote from Swiss Info, 15 November 2007

Addressing a news conference in Bern on Wednesday, [Turkish diplomat Ömür] Orhun [the representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, an international organisation of the European countries plus Canada and the U.S.)], said the Swiss Muslim community was relatively better off as far as education and financial status were concerned, but there was a major issue regarding perception.

“The mainstream Swiss population has a growing apprehension of Muslims in the country which leads to a sense of fear in the Muslim community of not being welcome, alienated and rejected,” he explained. “The perception problem of mutual fear and anxiety between the non-Muslim and Muslim communities could be easily corrected by small gestures provided there is goodwill on both sides. Otherwise this fault line could further increase in the future,” he told swissinfo.

Orhun said one way of building confidence and acceptance might be for the cantons to put Islam on the same footing as for example Christianity and Judaism. [...] Orhun also criticised political initiatives such as the rightwing Swiss People’s Party campaigns to force nationwide votes on banning the construction of minarets and on expelling criminal foreigners, which he said were “creating a very bad atmosphere”. [...] “Minarets are an integral part of mosques, as bell towers are parts of churches. And both of them are humanity's common heritage,” he said. [...]

The OSCE representative has already carried out ten similar visits to other countries in Europe, including Britain, France, Spain, Norway and Denmark, and plans to submit his report on Switzerland early next year.