Word: posters
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Strolling through downtown Geneva on a cool October evening, Nadia, a 23-year-old Kosovo native, shakes her head at a provocative poster depicting a burqa-clad woman in front of a thicket of missile-shaped minarets rising out of a Swiss flag. Below the flag, the word stop is written in big, bold letters. "As a Muslim woman, I am offended by this image," says Nadia, who requested that her last name not be used. "It presents Islam as a danger to Swiss society...
...That is exactly the message the poster's creators intend to convey. The image that has unsettled many of Switzerland's 310,000 Muslims is part of a campaign by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) to urge voters to approve a Nov. 29 referendum on whether to ban the construction of new minarets on mosques in the country. The party contends that more minarets - only four mosques currently have them - could inflame extremism and lead to a "rampant Islamization" of the country. (See pictures of Islam's revolution...
...amid concerns over a rising anti-Muslim xenophobia in Europe and heated debate in countries such as France and Italy over the banning of other Muslim symbols like the burqa. In Switzerland, though, it's not just the referendum that has angered Muslims but also the SVP's minaret poster itself, which many opponents say incites hatred and violates the country's antiracism law. Several towns have outlawed the posters in public spaces, while other cities, like Geneva, have allowed them to be posted as a right of free expression...
...also notorious for its racially tinged campaigns. Before the 2007 parliamentary elections, the party caused an uproar by creating a poster showing three white sheep kicking a lone black one from their flock to rally support behind a proposal to deport foreigners who have repeatedly been convicted of violent crimes. The initiative has not yet been voted on in a referendum, but the party scored a major victory in the elections that year, winning 29% of the vote. (Read "Who Decides Who Is Swiss...
...Last year, the SVP proposed another piece of legislation that would give the people, not the government, the final say in naturalization procedures. Its campaign poster depicted five dark-colored hands grabbing a stack of Swiss passports. That initiative was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls, with more than 63% of people voting...