Daniel Streich

Daniel Streich (born in Bulle, Canton of Fribourg) is a Swiss military instructor, community council member and a former member of Swiss People's Party. A Protestant who converted to Catholicism and then to Islam, Streich left the Swiss People's Party over the campaign for the national ban on the construction of new minarets.

Biography Streich was a founding member and president of the Gruyères section of the party from 2003 to 2007. He converted to Islam from Catholicism in 2005. He explained that Islam offered him "logical answers to important life questions". He then resigned from his presidency in June 2007 citing his discomfort with certain "extremist" positions of the party, especially the campaign to ban nationwide the construction of new minarets. While Streich in 2007 stated that he had "many Muslim friends" he did not make public his personal conversion to Islam until early November 2009, when he left the Swiss People's Party in protest against their campaign for the impending referendum of 29 November 2009. He then participated in setting up the Conservative Democratic Party cantonal section.

Streich's case was reported by the Swiss daily newspaper 20 Minuten on 23 November, during the week preceding the referendum and the story was picked up by the tabloid newspaper Blick on the following day. while Streich in fact never had campaigned against mosques or Islam, and also never revealed any intention of building a mosque.