Muslim Named Swiss of the Year
“Constant reports of terrorism and extremism make it a challenge for us,” Imam Mustafa Memeti of Bern said in an interview published Sunday, December 28, in the SonntagsZeitung, Swiss Info reported.
“At Friday prayer services I often stress that we don’t have any choice other than to open ourselves to Swiss society. We cannot operate in closed circles, we cannot construct parallel societies.”
Over the past year, Islam and Muslims were the center of lots of debates surrounding the nature of the religion.
According to the newspaper, the imam, who serves as the imam of the Muslim Association of Bern and as President of the Albanian Islamic Association of Switzerland, was an outspoken supporter of religious tolerance and of the integration of Muslims in Switzerland.
He was chosen for “his courage and his engagement in the most explosive debate of our time”.
Born in Albania, the imam of a Serbian origin has moved to Switzerland in 1991. Later on, he became a Swiss citizen in 2005.
Memeti said that many Muslims in Switzerland are afraid of losing their identity.
“Today I show the young that it is possible to be both an imam and a Swiss citizen. That you can integrate without losing your identity or your religion,” he said.
According to the CIA Factbook, Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims, representing 5 percent of the country’s nearly eight million people.
