Touche pas à mon pays

The « keep off my country » demonstration has laid for us the foundation of a new citizenship pact.
We strongly believe that cultures have three main destinies:

• Living in conflict leads to genocides.
• Living in rivalry leads to apartheid.
• By living together, everybody contributes an additional value. This last destiny can’t be achieved if a real and strong political will isn’t available. Demonstrators have actually assumed their own responsibility. So, we do wholeheartedly hope that decision makers will do the same.

After that demonstration which was held on March 6th 2010, in Helvetiaplatz in Berne, we would deeply express our gratitude to the journalists who did their best to cover and comment that event through written or audio visual media. Their wonderful job has created echoes all over Switzerland. By doing so, we are strongly convinced that achieved a true citizenship action. They have also taken part in laying the foundation of a new vision of a mutual citizenship. That is, the vision of a citizenship that brings both Suisse Muslims and Non Suisse Muslims citizens together.

The media has considerably contributed in raising awareness among Swiss Muslim citizens and therefore enabled them to hold an attitude and to express it overtly. The aim of our movement is to live, here In Switzerland, together and in harmony regardless of the diversity of our religious and cultural backgrounds. We consider our duty to express our loyalty and our attachment to our host country, Switzerland.

We would warmly thank all those who attended the « keep off my country » demonstration. It was so brave of them to have come despite the cold and the snow.

We would also deeply thank our numerous Muslim fellow citizens who have expressed orally, through phone calls or through emails their honest will to join the “ keep off my country” movement. If some of them weren’t able to join the demonstration, it was due to time constraints or to the fact that some of them were worried lest their relatives overseas should be disturbed or harassed.

It is worth mentioning that on the eve of the demonstartion, the majority of the Imams, in the Swiss French speaking cantons, have expressed, during their Friday prayer sermons their opposition to KADAFI’s call for the Jihad. They have incited Muslim believers to strongly reject that call. We do appreciate their numerous emails of support even if they were anonymously signed. Our thanks are also expressed to other Swiss citizens who have equally expressed their support for our action even if they do not share the same cultural or religious background. All these different types of different supporting message are at the heart of our vision, which aims at bringing people to live equally together , no matter what their their background is, in our Switzerland; the land of a gleaming democracy, the multi cultural country of the free choice, the land of Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid.

No matter how hard and huge our efforts will be, we won’t be able to express our deep and full gratitude to all those who contributed in the organisation of the demonstration. A demonstration that allowed us to transmit a message both inside and outside our beloved country.

• To the Lybian regime and those alike, we would like to say that we strongly reject any attempts aiming at undermining our country since we believe that we are full citizens who cling to the State of Rights.
• Our message is also aimed to the European extreme right parties, to the fascists, to the neo Nazi to whom we would like to say that we totally reject all attempts to handle the results of November 29th 2009 referendum related to the issue of the minarets.
• We would like to tell the whole world that we live in democratic country; a country of human Rights.
• To our fellow citizens, we would like to express our loyalty to our country and nation. As to the results of November 29th, 2009 referendum, we are totally convinced that such issues can be settled down and solved through democratic and legal way or via another referendum.
• We would also like to send a positive signal to the 40% of the citizens as well as the cities and cantons who rejected that initiative since we do share the same values; those of being democrat and coherent. These common values weren’t limited to the polls, but they were revealed in the march through the streets of Lausanne and the gathering past the Saint Pierre cathedral in Geneva on December 1st, 2009. We do really appreciate your support. That is why we tried modestly to express our gratitude by coming down town in Lausanne, setting up a stand with sweets, to wish you happy Christmas.
• We would like to assure the Swiss population who voted « yes » on November 29,2009 that we, the Swiss Muslim community, are neither obscurantist or unfaithful nor the weakest link in the building up of Helvetia.
• To the institutions ( such as agencies, Cutural Centers, confederations) that pretends to represent Muslims, we would like to say that we are citizens who have decided to break the silence and get involved in public life, in political debates as well as in debates taking place within the civil society.
• We invite and ask all Swiss Muslims living in Switzerland to assume their full citizenship, to get rid of their fears and express their attitude since we live in a country that respects the freedom of speech.

Through this action, we aim at putting pressure and shaking the populists’ anthill in order to urge to take a clear position in their relation towards the European extreme right wing parties.

Our message is also aimed to the populist parties. Even if they are fully aware that November 29th,2009 initiative can weaken our country, the have decided to go right the end. We ask them to assume their responsibility in the collapse of the social cohesion, in the creation of gaps between different communities and also in the distortion of the image of our country not only in the eyes of the neighbouring European countries but also in the eyes of the Arab Muslim countries and the rest of the world.

To the populist parties who, through their links with the extreme right wings parties, working on project that is likely to undermine the State of Rights, we say that we are a courageous people.

« Courage is the quest of the truth and voicing it out. Courage doesn’t consist of undergoing the law of the transient prevailing illusion which doesn’t leave an impact among imbecile clapping or among fanatic booing » (Jean Jaurès, juillet 1903).

For all these reasons, the demonstration of March6th, 2010 stands for the refusal land rejection of all type of Jihadist interference of Fascism, of neo Nazism or of populism To people who approve of such interference, we would like to say that we are democrat citizens, firm partisans of the values of the State of Rights and that we refuse and reject any that type of handling of our domestic affairs and issues whatsoever.

Our step on sSturday o6th was a first opportunity to give a speech in public, to convey a crystal clear attitude of refusal of all types of handling on the Swiss Muslim community and also of Islam in Switzerland.

Both demonstrators and initiators of this event, who are so pleased with the wave of peace that has blown on Switzerland since that Saturday, do warmly and wholeheartedly thank you.