Protesters from the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland who chose to wear a Nazi-era style yellow Star of David during their demonstrations against discrimination last week have drawn heavy criticism from Switzerland's Jewish community, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Tuesday. Some 2,000 conservative Muslim activists demonstrated on Saturday in the city of Bern, in protest of what they believe to be Swiss discrimination against Muslims. Some of the activists chose to express their opposition by wearing a Nazi-style yellow Star of David sticker with the word "Muslim" written on it, in reference to the stars Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Third Reich. Protesters were also seen carrying diminutive plastic mosques with minarets, following Switzerland's recent outlawing of the construction of new minarets. The president of the Jewish community in Bern, Edith Bino, denounced the yellow star sticker in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Basler Times, saying that its use was "so obviously wrong that it could not be taken seriously." The editor-in-chief of the local Swiss Jewish newspaper Zeitung Tachles, Yves Kugelmann, similarly commented on the use of the sticker as "simply idiotic." "It is regrettable when legitimate concerns are raised using false comparisons," she said. Though the issue of discrimination against Muslims should be addressed seriously, Kugelmann stressed, it should not be done "in this cheap way." The use of the Nazi-style yellow star also bothered some Muslim groups, as two mainstream Muslim organizations apparently avoided the demonstration, JTA reported. Still, the head of the Islamic Central Council, Nicolas Blancho, reportedly defended the use of the stickers, telling the Swiss Tages Anzeiger newspaper, "Muslims are treated as second-class citizens and are discriminated against, for example because they wear a headscarf or because of their name when they look for an apprenticeship or are looking for an apartment." During the demonstration, controversial British journalist Lauren Booth was among the speakers to address the crowd. Booth, sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who is a convert to Islam and wears a veil, told protesters she "sensed that Bern citizens had glared at her as she passed them on the street."
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