Posters urge the public to vote Yes against the construction of minarets; polls suggest the referendum will be rejected

In Switzerland, home of the referendum, voters decide on everything from reducing fighter jet noise in tourist areas to boosting funding for complementary medicine.

Although generally of narrow interest, even at home, once in a while, a plebiscite comes up that stirs passions well beyond national borders. That will be the case on Sunday, when voters decide on a call to ban construction of minarets at mosques.

On the face of it, the referendum is of negligible relevance, even by Swiss standards. The country has few mosques and fewer minarets. Only a tiny fraction of Switzerland’s 300,000-400,000 Muslims, drawn largely from the Balkans, are practising; most mosques are inconspicuous and there is scant demand for minarets. Any building schemes are subject to the same planning procedures that limit skyscrapers.

But, as with immigration and citizenship rights, the vote has touched a sensitive nerve – one with resonance elsewhere in Europe.

Immigration, integration and the dilution of national identity have become big themes in the UK, France, Belgium and beyond. Recently, they have grown even more prominent because of recession and spiralling unemployment. Far-right groups have exploited popular unease to boost representation and influence agendas. Austria’s two far-right groups took more than 28 per cent of the vote in elections last year.

Sunday’s vote is typical of the Swiss People’s party (SVP) – the ultraconservative group that regularly and expertly exploits national emotions to mobilise support. Reinforced by simple, yet striking images and terse, but effective language, the SVP has become Switzerland’s biggest party.

The stakes this time are higher even than when referendums sponsored by the party or organisations linked to it jeopardised integration or relations with the European Union.

“If accepted, the referendum would damage Switzerland’s image in the Arab world and possibly harm our exports,” says Urs Rellstab, deputy director of the Economiesuisse business federation.

Others, recalling Denmark’s crisis after the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, fear a Yes vote could do more than damage Switzerland’s financial health.

Matters have gained urgency after the detention in Libya of two Swiss businessmen following the brief arrest last year in Geneva of Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, and his wife, on allegations of violence against domestic servants. Since then, Libya has waged an unremitting campaign to undermine Switzerland, including a threat to table a motion at the recent United Nations general assembly to dismantle Switzerland altogether.

The Swiss government, churches and business leaders have all warned about the dangers of the campaign and called for rejection. As previously, the SVP’s stance has also been criticised as racist by non-governmental organisations and international bodies.

“Freedom of religious belief is a basic human right and changing the Swiss constitution to ban the construction of minarets would clearly breach the rights of the country’s Muslims,” says Tim Hancock of Amnesty International.

SVP leaders maintain they are simply performing their duty to protect Swiss national values. They say minarets have no religious significance, but symbolise Islamic intolerance. Warning against a creeping “Islamisation” of society, Ulrich Schlüer, an SVP MP, notes: “The anti-minaret initiative is particularly important for the younger generation. The young will be the ones particularly affected if Islamisation comes off.”

The SVP’s message has been conveyed with arresting and provocative images. Building on previous emotive – and widely criticised – posters, the latest campaign has been galvanised by a poster of a woman in a burka, standing on a Swiss flag, flanked by minarets looking like missiles.

Pollsters argue the campaign represents as much a ruse by the SVP to regain momentum as a deep drive against Islam. The party, which scored almost 29 per cent of the vote in the last national election, has since been eroded by internal schisms and the departure from government of Christoph Blocher, its most effective leader, in December 2007.

Opinion polls suggest the initiative will be rejected comfortably, even if the margin appears to be narrowing. But even if Sunday’s vote goes against the SVP, observers say the damage for Switzerland may already have been done.