A Protestant who converted to Catholicism and then to Islam, Streich left the Swiss People's Party over the campaign for the national ban on the construction of new minarets.
He then resigned from his presidency in June 2007 citing his discomfort with certain "extremist" positions of the party, especially the campaign to ban nationwide the construction of new minarets.
[1][5] Streich's story first appeared in English in Tikkun Daily on 4 December 2009, as part of the international coverage on the referendum outcome.
An embellished version of the story appeared on the website of Pakistani newspaper The Nation on 30 January 2010.
It depicted Streich as a major Swiss politician who had been actively involved in anti-Muslim propaganda, had suddenly seen the error of his "evil ways" and then converted to Islam.