Islam is the second most widely professed religion in France. France has the largest number of Muslims in the Western world, primarily due to migration from Maghrebi, West African, and Middle Eastern countries. These numbers also correspond to the CIA estimates for the number of Muslims in France. French polling company IFOP estimated in 2016 that French Muslims number between 3 and 4 million, and claimed that Muslims make up 5.6% of French people older than 15, and 10% of those younger than 25. According to the latest Eurobarometer poll (2019), on the other hand, the Muslim population in France is 5% of the total population.
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer. He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at St Antony's College, Oxford and the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, but as of 2018 is taking an agreed leave of absence. He is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, and the Université Mundiapolis in Morocco. He is also a senior research fellow at Doshisha University in Japan. He is the director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), based in Doha. He is a member of the UK Foreign Office Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He was elected by Time magazine in 2000 as one of the seven religious innovators of the 21st century and in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy readers as one of the top 100 most influential thinkers in the world and Global Thinkers. Ramadan describes himself as a "Salafi reformist".
Marco Camenisch is a Swiss anarchist and environmental activist. He is in prison for the 1989 murder of a border guard in Brusio, Switzerland.
Islam in Switzerland has mostly arrived via immigration since the late 20th century. Numbering below 1% of total population in 1980, the fraction of Muslims in the population of permanent residents in Switzerland has quintupled in thirty years, estimated at just above 5% as of 2013. A majority is from Former Yugoslavia ; an additional 20% is from Turkey. This is due to the fact that in the 1960s and 1970s Switzerland encouraged young men from Yugoslavia and Turkey to come as guest workers. Initially these young men were only planning on staying in Switzerland temporarily, however, revised Swiss immigration laws in the 1970s permitted family regrouping. Consequently, these men ended up staying in Switzerland as these new laws allowed the wives and children of these young men into the country. Since this time period, most of the Muslim immigration to Switzerland stems from asylum seekers arriving primarily from Eastern Europe.
Poverty in Switzerland refers to people who are living in relative poverty in Switzerland. In 2018, 7.9% of the population or some 660,000 people in Switzerland were affected by income poverty. Switzerland has also a significant number of working poor, estimated at 145,000 in 2015.
Swiss neutrality is one of the main principles of Switzerland's foreign policy which dictates that Switzerland is not to be involved in armed or political conflicts between other states. This policy is self-imposed, permanent, and armed, designed to ensure external security and promote peace.
The Geneva Mosque, also known as the Petit-Saconnex Mosque is the largest mosque in Geneva, Switzerland. It was financed by the Saudi-based Muslim World League and constructed in 1978 in the neighborhood of Le Petit-Saconnex.
Iran-Switzerland relations are foreign relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Swiss Confederation.
Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is a political historian. A Harvard University academic, Mohamedou is Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He is a member of the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding and the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, and is regarded as a leading international expert on the new forms of transnational terrorism. Mohamedou is also a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris in the Doctoral School. Previously, he was the Deputy Director and Academic Dean of the Geneva Center for Security Policy. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mauritania from 2008 until 2009.
Kurds in Switzerland are residents in Switzerland of full or partial Kurdish origin.
Éric Stauffer, born on October 24, 1964 in Carouge, is a Swiss politician from Homberg. He chairs the Genevan Citizens Movement from 2008 to 2012.
Pierre Maudet is a Swiss and French politician. Maudet was a member of FDP.The Liberals. He was the mayor of Geneva from 1 June 2011 to 31 May 2012.
Guy Bernard Parmelin is a Swiss politician serving as president of Switzerland since 2021, having previously served as vice president of Switzerland in 2020. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2016. Parmelin has served as head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research since 2019, previously heading the Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports between 2016 and 2018.
Arabs in Switzerland are Swiss citizens or residents of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage from Arab countries, particularly Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt, also small groups from Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Jordan and Sudan, who emigrated from their native nations and currently reside in Switzerland.
Tudor Scan Tech SA is a Swiss company that manufactures aircraft and cargo scanner including x-ray scanners and robotic scanning system. The company was founded in 2014 by Mircea Tudor and is currently headquartered in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Tudor Scan Tech incorporates MBTelecom Ltd, a Romanian company developing high technologies for the security industry, and to help customs and border officials to check for illegal weapons, contraband, and explosive materials. They have won The Grand Prix of the International Exhibition of Inventions thrice, 2009, 2013 and 2014. The company has also won WIPO Awards in 2009, organized by World Intellectual Property Organization.
Pascale Kramer in Geneva, is a French writer and novelist.
National symbols of Switzerland are the symbols used to represent Switzerland. As of 2020 the Swiss legislature has made three Swiss national symbols official, a flag, coat of arms and anthem, but various other symbols are used as well to represent the Swiss people.
Samson Chukwu was a 27-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker detained in the Swiss canton of Valais in an attempt to deport him to Lagos, Nigeria via Kloten, Switzerland. While detained in Granges, Valais at Crêtelongue Prison, he was handcuffed lying on his stomach. A police officer rested his weight onto Chukwu's back leading to Chukwu's death by "postural asphyxiation".
Béatrice Stöckli was a Swiss Christian missionary. She was killed in 2020 after having been taken hostage by the Islamic militant group Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a branch of Al-Qaeda in Mali.
Switzerland straddles the border between the beer-loving central European countries and the wine-loving western European and Mediterranean countries and today beer is second to wine in terms of consumption among Swiss. The country has a long tradition of brewing, with significant domestic beer production and a growing craft brewing sector.
