Bern/Kabul – While public opinion in Central Europe is increasingly polarized by debates over demographic development and immigration, a war-torn country in South Asia is experiencing a far more dramatic form of social discrimination rooted in deeply entrenched ideological convictions. In both cases – Switzerland and Afghanistan – xenophobia and fear of the “Other” lie at the core, yet the mechanisms and consequences could hardly be more different.

What remains of the Titanic? Perhaps this is the uncomfortable Truth of our time: it is not human achievements that save us from injustice, yet the willingness to recognize their limitations. Image: NOAA

Switzerland: The 10-Million Initiative – A political clash over “stopping immigration”

In Switzerland, the right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has launched a popular initiative entitled “No 10-Million Switzerland!”, calling for a cap on the permanent resident population at a maximum of ten million by 2050. The proposal foresees that once certain thresholds are reached – for example 9.5 million inhabitants – restrictive legal measures would be introduced to limit immigration, family reunification and asylum. Ultimately, even the agreement on the free movement of persons with the European Union could be called into question.

Critics see the initiative as a politically encoded form of xenophobia. By framing migration and population growth primarily as a “problem,” foreign-origin communities are turned into scapegoats. Opponents argue that such proposals entail economic risks, jeopardize bilateral relations, and would discriminate against people seeking protection, families and minorities. They also warn that, in practice, the initiative would effectively strip asylum seekers and migrants of rights.

Parliament and government have largely recommended rejecting the initiative, as it is widely interpreted within the political mainstream as a policy of isolation that goes far beyond mere “migration management.”

Afghanistan: A caste system instead of the rule of law – discrimination enshrined in law

While Switzerland debates population ceilings, the taliban regime introduced a new criminal and procedural code in early 2026 that effectively carries constitutional weight. This code dismantles a cornerstone of modern statehood: equality before the law.

The population is legally divided – reminiscent of hindu caste systems – into religious scholars, elites and ordinary citizens, each subject to different rights and penalties. Senior religious officials enjoy de facto immunity, while people from lower groups face harsher punishments and corporal penalties. Divergent religious legal interpretations are persecuted as heresy, even when they adhere more closely to scripture than the taliban’s own doctrines. Here, the “foreigner” is not the outsider from abroad, yet the differently believing citizen within.

One clarification is essential: the taliban do not act in the name of Islam. The Holy Quran recognizes no caste system, no social hierarchy before the law, no immunity for religious elites, nor discrimination of women vis-à-vis men – what women receive less of in inheritance compared to their brothers is compensated by the obligatory bridal gift. What the taliban enforce is an extreme political interpretation of sunni fundamentalism, mixed with pre-modern tribal structures and power interests.

The code repeatedly employs the legal concept of “slaves” and “free persons,” which under international law is interpreted as a legalization of slavery – a status prohibited worldwide.

Numerous fundamental principles of the rule of law – equality before the law, the right to defense, the right not to self-incriminate – are abolished or severely undermined. There is also no constitutional guarantee of education for girls.

Observers describe the system as institutionalized discrimination that divides social classes and religious groups and treats them unequally before the law. Human rights organizations and international experts warn that this not only violates the principle of equality, yet establishes a fundamentally hierarchical order.

Two worlds, one pattern

As different as the instruments may be – here a popular vote, there a religiously legitimized decree – the underlying pattern is similar: defining a “we” by devaluing a “they.” In Switzerland, this logic targets migrants, asylum seekers and newcomers. In Afghanistan, it is directed at people with the “wrong” religious interpretation, social status or gender.

The difference is profound and must not be relativized: Switzerland remains a constitutional state with free media, independent courts and mechanisms for political correction. Afghanistan is the opposite. Yet precisely for this reason the comparison is unsettling. When even stable democracies begin to define otherness as a threat, it reveals how fragile openness has become.

A warning mirror

Developments in both countries are not proof of equivalence, yet they are a mirror. They show how quickly societies – democratic or authoritarian – are tempted to replace complexity with exclusion. The question is not only how many people a country can “accommodate,” yet which values it is willing to defend when doing so becomes uncomfortable.

Conclusion – The imperfection of systems

Perhaps the deeper lesson of these developments lies neither in Bern nor in Kabul, yet in the realization that no system governed by humans is immune to failure – not even the most democratic country in the world, which is co-governed by referendums.

Switzerland, a model of political participation and institutional stability, demonstrates how even mature democracies become vulnerable once fear turns into political currency. Democracy does not automatically protect against exclusion; it can also enable it. Where majorities decide, minorities can lose – legally, procedurally, legitimately. This is not an accusation, yet a sober observation about the limits of human orders.

Afghanistan stands at the opposite end of the spectrum. There, failure is more visible, more brutal, legally codified. And yet the cause is related: people exercising power by claiming ownership of Truth. The taliban invoke Islam – and precisely thereby miss it. What they enforce is not Islam as a universal ethical message, yet a narrow political interpretation of sunnism, enriched with unverifiable hadiths and pre-modern concepts of domination. Here, the “foreign” is not the West, yet any other legal interpretation, any deviation, any woman who wishes to learn.

Set against this stands the Holy Quran alone: libertarian, without historically dubious sunnah or hadith traditions. Unlike the Bible and the New Testament, it understands itself not as the product of human negotiation, yet the sole Word of God. And therein lies its invulnerability: One Who creates worlds cannot fail.

“And this Quran could not have been forged except by Allah, and yet it is a confirmation of what came before it and described in detail – a Book, without doubt, from the Lord of the Worlds.”

The Holy Quran, Surah Yunus/Jonah 10:37

Whether one shares this claim is secondary. What matters is the insight behind it: everything humans construct remains provisional. Constitutions, democracies, laws, even revolutions: all carry within them the seed of their own failure – not because they begin wrongly, yet because they are human. Even the creation of life itself, according to established evolutionary theory – the foundation of our education system – cannot be empirically reproduced in a laboratory.

Perhaps this is the uncomfortable Truth of our time: systems do not save us from injustice; the willingness to recognize their limits does. And it is not religion that becomes dangerous, yet the moment humans claim to have understood it completely. And precisely for this reason, the Holy Quran has remained untouched to this day. Not a word altered, censored or authored by a human – aside from headings. A better world is within reach.

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By Okay Altinisik | 29-1-2026, 12:28:54