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February 1, 2025 | 05:06 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The hopes of roughly one thousand Muslims in Wheinfelden, a village in Thurgau, Eastern Switzerland, to have their own dedicated Islamic cemetery are now uncertain. The villagers will hold a referendum to decide whether or not to approve the plan.
"We feel less confident with this referendum," said Adem Kurovic, Secretary General of the Dachverband Islamischer Gemeinden der Ostschweiz und des Fürstentums Liechtenstein (DIGO), an Islamic organization in Thurgau, in a phone interview with Tempo on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.
Before Christmas 2024, the Thurgau parliament approved the plan for the Islamic cemetery in Wheinfelden. Twenty-four members of the Thurgau Provincial Parliament voted in favor, with only two against. Even the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) did not object at that time.
However, this approval is now challenged by a referendum scheduled for May 18, 2025. The Swiss political system allows citizens to challenge government or organizational plans by collecting signatures.
In this case, Wheinfelden villagers, led by local politician Lukas Madoerin, gathered 400 signatures in just three days, meeting the requirement for a local referendum.
The opposition to the Islamic cemetery is somewhat surprising, considering that at least 12 other Swiss cantons already have such cemeteries. Bern, for example, has had an Islamic cemetery in Bremgarten for the past 25 years, and its presence has not caused problems.
Nevertheless, there has been past opposition to Islam in Switzerland. In 2009, Swiss voters rejected the construction of minarets in a national referendum. Another national referendum in 2021 saw voters reject the wearing of burqas. Both of these votes drew international attention.
According to the plan, DIGO will build the Islamic cemetery on vacant land next to the existing public cemetery. Wheinfelden's population is predominantly Catholic. The proposed cemetery would have space for 70 graves.
"So far, if there are Muslims who pass away, we bury them in other cantons, such as Winterthur and Zurich, since there are no Islamic cemeteries in our area," Kurovic explained. Thurgau currently lacks a dedicated Islamic burial ground.
Kurovic said that the Thurgau Muslims have already compromised. Instead of traditional shroud burials, they agree to bury their dead in wooden coffins. "As long as the Islamic cemetery permanently exists, we are not adamant," he stated.
He added that the cemetery could be relocated in 20 years. Their primary request is that the graves face the qibla, the direction of Mecca.
Kurovic is worried that the referendum will fail. Only about 10 percent of Wheinfelden's 12,000 residents are Muslim, a small number to win a local vote.
Islam is not officially recognized in Switzerland. However, the country has approximately 400,000 Muslims, mostly from the former Yugoslavia and Turkiye.
Krisna Diantha contributed to the writing of this article.
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