Swiss legislator condemned by Islamic scholar as 'new Hitler'

Doha - The verbal war over Switzerland's ban on building new minarets on mosques escalated Tuesday during a talk show when an Islamic academic condemned a key backer of the Swiss referendum as the "new Hitler of Europe." The director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, Azzam al-Tamimi, made the remarks on al-Jazeera broadcaster about the Swiss legislator Oskar Freysinger.

"Freysinger is a danger for the future of Switzerland," Tamimi said.

Freysinger, a member of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) that called the referendum, who was also a guest on the show, retorted that it was "absolutely a democratic decision" and that unlike the Swiss referendum, "Hitler did not allow people to vote."

Freysinger also countered that in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the building of Christian churches is banned.

Al-Tamimi praised Swiss church leaders who spoke out against the ban. He called on the people of Switzerland to protect the reputation of their "beautiful, free country" by opposing the ban.

On November 29, more than 57 per cent of Swiss voters agreed that new minarets on mosques should be banned. The vote has reignited passions around the role of Islam in Swiss society and other parts of Europe with large Muslim populations.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party came to power after a series of democratic votes during Germany's Weimar Republic of the 1920s and 1930s. Only after he was named chancellor in 1933 did Hitler transform the country into a totalitarian one-party state and ban free elections.