The contention involved the Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten, which applied for a construction permit to erect a 6-metre-high minaret on the roof of its Islamic community centre.

As a consequence of that decision, local residents (who were members of the group mentioned) and the commune of Wangen brought the case before the Administrative Court of the Canton of Solothurn, but failed with their claims.

[5] From 2006 until 2008, members of the Swiss People's Party and the Federal Democratic Union launched several cantonal initiatives against the construction of minarets.

"[10] The initiators justified their point of view by quoting parts of a speech in 1997 by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (later Prime Minister and President of Turkey), which stated: "Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers.

"[11] Ulrich Schluer, one of the Egerkinger committee's most prominent spokesmen, stated on that point: "A minaret has nothing to do with religion: It just symbolises a place where Islamic law is established.

"[12] The members of the Egerkinger committee included, among others, Ulrich Schluer, Christian Waber, Walter Wobmann, Jasmin Hutter, Oskar Freysinger, Eric Bonjour, Sylvia Flückiger, Lukas Reimann, and Natalie Rickli.

[19] A few days before the election, campaigners drove a vehicle near Geneva Mosque in the Le Petit-Saconnex imitating the adhan, the Islamic call to ritual prayer (salat) using loudspeakers.

[21] The British newspaper The Times cited support of the minaret ban from "radical feminists" who opposed the oppression of women in Islamic societies.

How can one expect to condone the propagation of an ideology that encourages husbands to beat their wives, the "believer" to murder the "infidel", a justice that uses body mutilation as punishment, and pushes to reject Jews and Christians?

It said that the popular initiative against their construction had been submitted in accordance with the applicable regulations, but infringed guaranteed international human rights and contradicted the core values of the Swiss Federal Constitution.

[25] On 24 October 2008 the Federal Commission against Racism criticised the people's initiative, claiming that it defamed Muslims and violated religious freedom, which was protected by fundamental human rights and the ban on discrimination.

[26] The Federal Assembly recommended (by 132 to 51 votes and 11 abstentions) in spring of 2009 that the Swiss people reject the minaret ban initiative.

[27] The Society for Minorities in Switzerland called for freedom and equality and started an internet-based campaign in order to gather as many symbolic signatures as possible against a possible minaret ban.

[28] Amnesty International warned the minaret ban aimed to exploit fears of Muslims and encourage xenophobia for political gains.

"This initiative claims to be a defense against rampant Islamification of Switzerland," Daniel Bolomey, the head of Amnesty's Swiss office, said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse.

"[29] Economiesuisse considered that an absolute construction ban would hit Swiss foreign interests negatively, claiming that merely the launch of the initiative had caused turmoil in the Islamic world.

[37] He called the initiative "obsolete and unnecessary", but added that the public discourse on the issue could put Switzerland in a positive light, at least for the majority who at that point opposed a ban.

"[40] Giusep Nay states that from an objective viewpoint jus cogens is to be read and given effect in association with fundamental norms of international law.

[citation needed] However, a professor of law at St. Gallen University expressed the opinion that the ban rendered the Langenthal project obsolete.

[48] In the case of the Islamic center in Frauenfeld, canton of Thurgau, an existing ventilation shaft had been adorned with a sheet metal cone topped with a crescent moon.

In October 2009, the Frauenfeld city council declined to treat the structure as a "minaret", saying that it had been officially declared a ventilation shaft, and that the additional crescent moon had not provided cause for comment during the six years since its installation.

[54] The Swiss referendum was welcomed by several European far right parties:[64] On 30 January 2010, Pakistani newspaper The Nation carried a fabricated story, according to which "the first man who had launched a drive for imposition of ban on mosques minarets", had seen the error of his "evil ways" and had converted to Islam, which had supposedly "created furore in Swiss politics", claiming that Streich "is ashamed of his doings now and desires to construct the most beautiful mosque of Europe in Switzerland."