The Swiss Center Islam and Society, attached to the University of Friborg, celebrates its tenth anniversary. Created in 2015, he had aroused strong political reactions and some had tried, without success, to obtain his closure. Today, he has established himself as a key actor in understanding Islam in Switzerland.
The Swiss Center Islam and Society (CSIS) had difficult beginnings. Barely a year after its opening, the UDC had challenged its existence to the Federal Court to demand its closure.
At the time, Roland Mesot, former president of the Friborg UDC, had expressed his opposition to the state training of imams, estimating on the antenna of the RTS that “it is not for the State to do this training”.
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Despite these obstacles, the center has been accepted as a benchmark player in the fields of research, training and dialogue around Islam in a Swiss context, rejoices Hansjörg Schmitt in the morning.
-A recognized center
“We have often provided expertise to different cantons for professionals in social action, the police, public education, in short, a whole audience that arose questions about how to better understand Islam, on radicalization processes and their prevention,” explains the CSIS co-director.
Today, the role of the center is therefore recognized, he believes. “The presence of people of Muslim faith in Switzerland is a reality. Having an institute anchored in a Swiss university, with interdisciplinary methods, seems to me a good solution,” judges Hansjörg Schmitt.
The CSIS must, however, take up a new challenge. The center no longer receives financial support from the Confederation and must therefore find other sources of funding. The institution, however, promises not to seek funds abroad.
Mehdi Piccand/Jfe
