GENEVA, June 4 (IslamOnline) - World soccer Cup has not kept Swiss Muslims from celebrating the end of academic year 2001/02 and their children’s success as one step forward on the way of bolstering Islamic presence in Confoederatio Helvetica.

The Islamic Center in Geneva - a non-governmental organization (NGO) - this week organized a religious and artistic festival, with the majority of performances designed for the children’s pleasure. Children poured into the festival from Geneva and nearby cities, particularly Leon and Lausanne, two French-speaking cities with a Muslim minority of North African origins.

The festival, designed to celebrate the end of a successful academic year for Muslim primary and preparatory students, presented a variety of religious, cultural and artistic performances, including hymns, competitions and group games.

The festival organizers presented an exhibition of Islamic books and documents in three different languages: Arabic, English and French. They also organized an exhibition of traditional industries in a number of Islamic countries. The best selling item was the Palestinian scarf which is very popular with Swiss Muslims regardless of their national loyalties.

The festival further presented group meals which brought together Muslims from different parts of Switzerland.

In an interview with IslamOnline’s correspondent (who was on a visit to Geneva), the Imam of the Mosque of the Islamic Cultural Institute in Geneva, Rashid Mohammed Farahat said: "Swiss Muslims believe children should have first priority since they represent the hope for the Muslim minority. If we succeed in bringing our children up in a healthy Islamic way, we are helping build a better future for all Muslims here."

"The greatest challenge facing Swiss Muslims is to give their children a good Islamic education beside the official French, German and Italian curricula supported by all Swiss states," added Farahat, a Muslim of Libyan origin.

"The school of the Islamic Cultural Institute, which teaches Arabic and Islamic studies, has 550 boys and girls from Geneva and other cities, including French towns and villages on the Swiss borders," he added. "But the number is still so small compared to the school’s capacity."

Farahat asked Arab and Islamic countries to give more support to the Islamic educational institutions in Switzerland, in order to help maintain the Islamic identity of the Muslim minority there.

The Muslim population in Switzerland has been growing, with the number rising from 16,000 in 1970 to over 200,000 in 2002. The majority of them come from Turkey and North Africa, and live in all 26 cantons in Switzerland.

Muslim activists in Switzerland confirmed to IslamOnline that unlike the case in the U.S. and many other European countries, there have been no assaults against Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. This has reassured Muslims there of a safe future in a country that upholds the principles of tolerance and neutrality.