Graffiti threatening Christians with death were found scrawled on two bus stops on the same road in Qrendi yesterday but are suspected to be fake and intended to provoke Islamophobia.

The writing on the stone shelters, situated along Triq il-Panorama between Ħaġar Qim and Wied Iż-Żurrieq, reads “Death to Christians 1-3-2015”, next to the word “Allah” in Arabic script.

“Allah” was also scribbled on the wall of the historic St Matthew Chapel, at Il-Maqluba in Qrendi, and on a boundary wall of the Kirkop cemetery.

The police are investigating but doubts were immediately raised about whether a native Arabic speaker was behind the graffiti.

Will Abela, a Maltese-Egyptian translator and writer, said “Allah” was written badly. The first letter is too long and too low in relation to the others. The word is also written how it is found online, as if someone looked it up.

Arabs would never write it this way because it is mainly decorative

“The way it is written here badly imitates the way it would be written in a Quran page. Arabs would never write it this way because it is mainly a decorative way of writing the word,” Mr Abela said.

The Imam, Mohammed El Sadi, said the graffiti instilled fear of Islam.

“Irrespective of whether the perpetrators who wrote the script were Muslim or not, such statements are condemned and only create more fear and hatred against Islam,” he said.

The Qrendi local council said it “unanimously and strongly condemns such cowardly xenophobic graffiti and acts”, which were done “with the sole aim of creating a state of unwarranted fear and alarm” at a time of religious intolerance.

The graffiti on the bus shelters has now been removed and the council is being advised on how to clean up the chapel wall.

As the Islamic State terrorist group gains a foothold in Libya, social media was rife with fear of some kind of “invasion”.