I refer to Fr Stephen Attard’s defence (August 27) of his Sunday homily that I had commented about in the Talking Point of August 22.

In his homily, he had quoted an imam (“not in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but in Belgium!”) as saying that Muslims planned to take over Europe and to impose Sharia culture, through Muslims’ greater fertility. I have since seen the You Tube clip and the priest was quoting the Imam correctly.

However, in his letter the priest left out this embarrassing detail and edited the original sequence and emphasis of his sermon.

He now writes that he spoke only about the suffering of Christians in Syria and Iraq at the hands of ISIS. Why?

Furthermore, I did not take him to task, whether verbally or in writing, for mentioning this suffering and, indeed, referred to it in my Talking Point.

The attempt to “rope in” Pope Francis was, therefore, gratuitous.

I will not dignify his other comments with a response. But what is most worrying is what he left unsaid. He did not acknowledge that his words could have provided comfort and confirmation to the many who already see Muslims – all Muslims – as an existential threat, even if this was not his intention.

He did not write a single word to clarify that not all Muslims are Sharia fundamentalists.

He does not seem to realise that by repeating that “our culture is, in essence, Christian”, although this is historically correct, he is unwittingly emphasising the us-them dichotomy on which Maltese anti-Muslim prejudice is feeding and growing.

He only needs to see the comments on the blogosphere that his letter provoked to know this to be true.