The population of Switzerland voted in favor of a referendum outlawing the construction of minarets on mosques on November 29, CNN.com reported. The four current minarets on mosques will remain according to the law.

The referendum was passed with 57 percent of the vote and was the result of a campaign by the Swiss People's Party, which argued that the minarets were political, not religious, in nature. Their presence would therefore be unconstitutional by being on houses of worship.

A majority of the Swiss parliament opposed the ban. Significant tension in Europe has risen due to the rapid increase in the Muslim population and instability that has resulted from the demographic changes, such as the riots in reaction to the 2005 publication of cartoons in Denmark mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch parliamentarian born in Somalia, wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that the ban was "a vote for tolerance and inclusion, which political Islam rejects."

"The minaret is a symbol of Islamist supremacy, a token of domination that came to symbolize Islamic conquest. It was introduced decades after the founding of Islam," she wrote.

The ban was met with widespread condemnation in the Muslim world.

The ban was condemned by non-Muslims as well, including the United Nations and the Vatican. Ynet News reported that the Conference of European Rabbis issued a condemnation of the referendum, saying it violated freedom of religion.

"Only through unrelenting support of moderates within the Muslim community and promoting interfaith dialogue can European governments defeat the fundamentalist extreme Islam," Rabbi Aba Dunner, the head of the Conference, was quoted as saying by Ha'aretz.

Nationalist parties in the Netherlands and the Denmark are now calling for similar referendums in their countries.