Muslim education

There is a planned attempt to have Islam officially recognised by the Maltese state.

I can quote two recent moves. The 2005 Shadow Report on Racism in Malta by the European Network against Racism (www. enar-eu.org, page 12) wrote: "The Muslim community complained of the fact that there was no instruction into Arabic or into Islam for Muslim students in public schools. For this reason, they set up their own school... yet it received no public funding unlike schools run by the Catholic Church."

This is evidenced further by your report 'Maria Al Batool School goes secondary' (The Sunday Times, August 26) about the school housed at the Islamic Centre in Corradino which gives educational instruction in Arabic and the Koran. Your report quotes Wagdi Nashnoush, secretary general of the World Islamic Call Society's Malta branch, as saying: "...since the school offers a spiritual service like Church schools, we therefore request the Maltese government to subsidise this school as it subsidises Church schools".

As we all know, years ago there was an agreement whereby the Catholic Church ceded some of its property to the State in exchange for government funding of Church schools. So the comparison between Catholic and Muslim schools does not hold. But, more importantly, as a Maltese and a Catholic, I strongly feel that the link between the Maltese State and the Catholic Church is fundamental to Malta's cultural and national identity. Any attempt to put another religion on a par with Catholicism is to undermine that link.

It is time for the Catholic Church to take a stand on the matter. Those NGOs with a Catholic background, which are members of ENAR, should also be vigilant.