National Council wants to make foreign financing of mosques more difficult
Published: Thursday, Sep 12th 2024, 10:50
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The National Council is demanding conditions for the foreign financing of houses of worship and educational institutions in Switzerland. It ordered a corresponding report from the Federal Council on Thursday.
The postulate of the National Council's Security Policy Committee (SIK-N), which was passed by 190 votes to 1 with one abstention, is intended to show how loopholes in the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act could be closed. The background to this are reports of Turkish imams with extremist ideas in Switzerland.
The current licensing conditions for caregivers and teachers are not sufficient to prevent the spread of extremist, violence-glorifying or human rights-corrupting ideas in houses of prayer and religious educational institutions in Switzerland, said committee spokesperson Fabian Molina (SP/ZH). One of the main problems is foreign funding.
The tenor in the National Council was that foreign financing of houses of worship and educational institutions in general should be subject to guidelines. For example, religious education financed from abroad should be subject to conditions. This is the only way to prevent extremist circles from spreading hate propaganda and disinformation.
"Cantons and cities have done a lot"
Justice Minister Beat Jans opposed the postulate. It is true that hate preachers have no place in Swiss houses of worship. However, the approach outlined by the SIK-N would not be effective. "The control effort would be disproportionate and circumvention would be easy."
Instead, Jans wants to focus on work that is already underway. For example, the transparency regulations for transnationally active associations will be tightened. "The cantons and cities have done a lot in this area." The situation has clearly improved.
According to Jans, the current revision of the Intelligence Service Act provides for additional possibilities for the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) to investigate financial flows. The Federal Council also stated that the areas of education and religion were the responsibility of the cantons.
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