ABSTRACT
The Islamic percentage of the European population has grown dramatically over the past several decades. In response, many states initially adopted policies that sought to accommodate the religious practices of their Muslim population (Fetzer and Soper 2005). In turn, European far-right activists helped engineer a populist backlash against Muslims, and the results have been felt in mainstream public policy and electoral politics throughout the region. France has banned the wearing of the hijab in public schools and the French legislature voted to outlaw the wearing of the burka in public places, the lower house of parliament in Belgium passed a similar burka ban, and the Netherlands and Britain have proposed doing the same. The latest of these actions was the 2009 referendum vote in Switzerland that banned the construction of new minarets. A clear majority of Swiss voters (57.5 percent) affirmed the proposal, making Switzerland the only country in Europe with an outright prohibition on the construction of these religious structures (Antonsich and Jones 2010). That the Swiss referendum is consistent with what other states have done to restrict the rights of European Muslims does not, however, explain why the Swiss voted so convincingly in favor of the ban. We suggest that the ideal way to interpret the meaning of the vote is to analyze official voting data from the referendum itself. Based on our analysis of these votes, we argue that partisanship, ethno-religious identification, and educational attainment were the key factors shaping citizens’ behavior.
