Abstract:

The islamophobia is rapidly increasing in nowadays modern societies regarded as democratic, pluralistic and liberal. Racism and xenophobia spreading through fear of Islam, the emergence of radical right parties and the negative images and prejudices about Islam having media coverage are very effective in this situation. This paranoia of fear causes the conceptualization of Islam not only as a religion or ideology, but as a culture and civilization as the enemy and the other against the West. Along with the attacks of September 11, 2001, the worsened image of Islam in the West became prevent with the attacks carried out by al-Qaeda (2003 Istanbul, 2004 Madrid, 2005 London attacks) and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (2016 Brussels Airport, 2016 Nice and 2017 Manchester attacks). The identification of radicalism and violence with Islam caused gradually the transformation of the fear of Islam to anti-Islamism. The existence of the other in Europe became the source of legitimacy in the restriction of freedoms. One of the important examples in the restriction of freedoms is the referendum held in Switzerland on October 29th, 2009. The common view about the ban on minarets is that it violates international human rights norms. The ban on minarets affects three normative orders that are related to each other but also different from each other. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to discuss whether the prohibition is against the provisions of national (Swiss Constitution), regional (European Convention on Human Rights) and international law (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

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