GENEVA, Nov 30, 2009 (AFP) - The imam at Switzerland's biggest mosque on Monday urged the Muslim world to respect a decision to ban minarets, saying any backlash would harm the Muslim community.

'The message is one of calm. It will not help to abandon trade or ties with Switzerland,' said Youssef Ibram, imam at the Geneva mosque which was vandalised several times in the run-up to the vote.

'The Muslim world must respect, without accepting the decision. But it must respect the Swiss decision. Otherwise, we would be the first victims,' he told AFP.

Switzerland on Sunday voted to ban minarets, backing an initiative brought by the far-right Swiss Peoples' Party (SVP) - the country's biggest political party.

The result flew in the face of opinion polls that had predicted a rejection and caught out government ministers who had opposed the ban alongside the bulk of Switzerland's political, religious and economic establishment.

The Swiss government sought to assure the country's 400,000 Muslims, mainly from the Balkans and Turkey, that the outcome was 'not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture.'

But Ibram said the government was at fault for not having shot down the initiative from the start.

He said it could have stopped the initiative from going to a vote, claiming it violated constitutional provisions guaranteeing religious freedom.

'Muslims and Islam have been condemned. Even if today we say it's not the case, it is the case. It is the people, the citizens of the Muslim faith who have been targetted,' he said.

The same message was echoed by Farhad Afshar, who heads the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland.

'The most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote. Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community,' he said.

Muslim leaders believe that with the latest victory, the far-right in Switzerland will feel emboldened to further target the Muslim community.

'I'm sure that the SVP, given this success, will use other initiatives like the burka, it will come up with other subjects to have other electoral successes, to hurt the Muslim community again,' said Ibram.