journal of religion in europe 9 (2016) 44-65 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi 10.1163/18748929-00901003 brill.com/jre Journal of Re ligion in Europe Visibility or Invisibility: The Dilemma of the Muslim Associations of Switzerland Christophe Monnot University of Lausanne, Switzerland christophe.monnot@unil.ch Abstract The Muslim associations of Switzerland are in the throes of a dilemma: should they remain invisible in order to avoid social stigmatization, or become visible in order to speak out and gain fair recognition? This invisibility especially relates to the local level and the impact and interactions that the associations have with their immediate envi- ronment. The visibility is characterized by the decision of the ‘representative’ associa- tions to bring Muslims out of obscurity. It touches on the supra-local level of federal cantonal representation. The analysis in this article will illuminate the two levels of the dilemma, based on observations and interviews conducted with the Muslim religious communities of a large representative region of Switzerland. Keywords Muslim – Mosques – Visibility – Recognition – Switzerland 1 Introduction In Switzerland, Muslim associations, principally emerging from different waves of first Turkish and then Balkan migration, have maintained a low pro- file, like many migrant communities.1 Socially invisible, the Islamic associa- tions were seeking to avoid stigmatization. This strategy has gradually reached its limits, marked by the vote to ban minarets in November 2009. Since then, 1 I would like to thank Christine Rhone for the English version of the paper.