"Religious leaders across the world have criticized Switzerland's referendum vote to ban the building of minarets" at Muslim mosques, the BBC reports. "The Vatican joined Muslim figureheads from Indonesia and Egypt, as well as Switzerland, in denouncing the vote as a blow to religious freedom."

Bloomberg News writes that the move "prompted criticism from the French foreign minister and a senior Egyptian cleric amid concern the vote may hurt exports to Muslim countries."

At the United Nations, the "Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief," Asma Jahangir, issued a statement saying, in part, that:

A ban on minarets amounts to an undue restriction of the freedom to manifest one's religion and constitutes a clear discrimination against members of the Muslim community in Switzerland.

As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reported yesterday on All Things Considered that proponents of the ban call minarets a "sign of a politically aggressive Islam." She says only 4 of Switzerland's 200 mosques have minarets; the tall, slender towers from which calls to prayer are typically broadcast: