The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu pointed out that banning the construction of minarets upon a vote which took place in Switzerland transfers the phenomenon of Islamophobia from individual and media acts to official, government and even constitutional levels.

He warned that it would institutionalize the phenomenon and escalate its manifestations. He also described what happened as a paradigm shift that can not go overlooked and that it comes in the context of an overwhelming discriminatory racial phenomenon.
This came in the Secretary General's statement addressed on Sunday 31 January 2010 to the meeting of the OIC Permanent Representatives held at the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah on the referendum held in Switzerland on banning the construction of minarets in Muslim Mosques.

Ihsanoglu pointed out that the OIC General Secretariat has been following the Swiss trend since its beginning in November 2007 and noted that since then he conducted regular contacts at the highest level with the Swiss Government in a bid to address the situation.

The Secretary General stated that he met with the Swiss Foreign Minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey many a time and noted that meetings between the OIC General Secretariat on one hand and the Swiss Embassy in Riyadh and the senior officials in the Swiss Foreign Ministry continued over this period in Bern and Jeddah.

Ihsanoglu reiterated the OIC's strong condemnation of the outcome of the referendum and stated the position of the Organization which expressed disappointment and concern regarding this ban. The ban was considered by the Organization as an example of the growing incitement against Islam in Europe on the part of extremists, xenophobes, racists, anti-immigrant and extremist right groups that stand in the face of wise and logical positions and human values.

The Secretary General added that what makes it confusing is that vote on banning minarets contradicts with the provisions of the Swiss Federal Constitution and has exclusively targeted Muslims in this country.

Ihsanoglu also pointed out that the Swiss Government was embarrassed by this development and expressed its non-adoption of the issuance of such ban. He explained that it did that for two reasons, the first of which is its conviction that the endorsement of this ban would place Switzerland in a position contradicting with its constitution, laws and international commitments and cast doubt on the rightfulness of its hosting of the headquarters of UN Human Rights Organizations. The second reason is its fear from an Islamic reaction.

The Secretary General, however, noted that some European circles criticized the Swiss Government for not taking legal procedures towards the non-holding of this vote.

Ihsanoglu, meanwhile, referred to the many advocates of the result of the vote warning that some took this opportunity to incite against the Muslim presence in Europe and to call for stopping the Islamic expansion and Islamization of Europe in spite of the fact that Muslims constitute 5% only of Europe's population.

The Secretary General stated that the Islamic Ummah leaders have entrusted the OIC with the mission of following up and countering Islamophobia, and that the Organization had made strenuous efforts to this end. But the new paradigm development, represented in the Swiss ban on minarets, while requiring advancing these efforts, makes it inevitable for us to set a special programme in this respect.
In conclusion, he said: "It is high time to move from the position of reacting to that of initiating action. The OIC will remain committed to work on gathering the governments, NGOs and private sector in the West and Muslim World in a fruitful dialogue aiming at combating extremism and intolerance and seeking intercultural and interfaith coexistence based on harmony.