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Muslim leader: Europe sending bad messages to Muslims
Referendum to outlaw construction of minarets in Switzerland sent a bad message to Europe's Muslims, says religious leader
- AP
- Published: 17:29 December 2, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- Walter Wobmann, president of the committee 'Yes for a ban of Minarets', looks at a campaign poster. Swiss citizens voted on the initiative to ban the construction of further minarets in Switzerland.
Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Bosnian Muslim religious leader said on Wednesday he hopes Europe will restore its values, which he said were violated by the Swiss decision to ban minarets and the EU's keeping of visa requirements only for Europe's predominantly Muslim countries.
Mustafa Ceric, the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, said it was interesting that both decisions were made on the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar, Eid Al Adha.
Sunday's referendum to outlaw the construction of minarets in Switzerland sent a bad message to Europe's Muslims, Ceric said.
On Monday, the European Union abolished visa requirements for citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia but kept them for Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia.
In Bosnia, where Muslim Bosniaks, Christian Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats live, the ban effectively blocks only Muslims from traveling.
The country's Serbs and Croats have, or have access to, Serbian and Croatian passports.
"The message from Brussels told us we are worth less than our Serbian, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Croatian neighbours, and the one from Switzerland told us that our religious and cultural symbols are unwanted," Ceric said.
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