The saga of Malta’s Muslims to find suitable venues for their prayers continues. Last January their silent witness to their religious commitment at the mercy of the elements prompted the authorities to provide a temporary solution in Floriana. But this was not sufficient; the Malta Muslim Council Foundation has recently been trying to secure a small prayer room in St Paul’s Bay.
The good old local council protested vigorously about this. It voted unanimously to oppose the application for the Muslim prayer room. Nothing unites these Nationalist and Labour councillors quite like keeping the Muslims out of the locality’s collective back yard to, er, protect the value of residents’ property.
Which begs the question: how exactly does an underground Muslim prayer room devalue residents’ property? Will the Muslim faithful be partaking in some ghastly heathen rituals that might disturb the residents in their lawful enjoyment of Xarabank? Will the shoes left outside the prayer room be so smelly that they will overpower the residents’ pets?
Of course, we all know the unmentionable answer. It is because for many Maltese, Muslim equals dark, suspicious-looking young men who have only just put away their scimitars. Indeed, the local council found itself in the joyous embrace of the Soldiers of Odin and the Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin, who thought they recognised a kindred spirit.
The horror-stricken council did try to row back its boat, but it was too late. The collective Maltese consciousness had been imprinted with yet another mainstream affirmation of the unspeakable. The silent majority noted the headlines, nodded in agreement over its breakfast, and turned to the sports section.
For let there be no mistake – racial prejudice is now institutionalised in Malta, legitimised by the fundamentalist atrocities we see in the news. It permeates the common-sense perceptions of our neighbours and families. It is deaf and blind to the efforts of the moderate leadership of the Maltese Muslim community to integrate into Maltese society.
It is no surprise that the two major parties are largely silent on this issue. There are few votes to be garnered in Malta today in championing interculturalism.
Let there be no mistake – racial prejudice is now institutionalised in Malta, legitimised by the fundamentalist atrocities we see in the news
Maltese society is sick, and the infection is fear. Not of the Muslim workmate or the Muslim family whose kids play with ours, but of The Muslim, that construct of Maltese folklore, coffee shop anecdotes and the media drip-feed of the alien horror coming from France, America, Syria and Iraq. If this infection is untreated, its pus is violence. It is lurking in our language, longing to find an outlet, a spark, another convenient casus belli.
More than two years ago I wrote that it was already late, but perhaps not too late, for dialogue between the different communities in Malta. Action is now more urgent than ever. That is why President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca’s efforts to nudge the St Paul’s Bay community towards dialogue over the proposed prayer room should be given much more credit. She is best placed to take advantage of this first initiative to start a nation-wide discussion through her Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society. Perhaps at the foundation’s 2017 national conference?
The President needs to reclaim and reshape the true modern meaning of Maltese patriotism, which is inclusive, not exclusive. We cannot let Malta’s fundamentalists, this rag-tag band of Great Siege nostalgics, monopolise this discourse.
A first step would be for Maltese civil society to reach out to the Muslim community with practical solutions. This is what St Albert the Great College did. The offer of its premises for the Muslim prayers was the first really useful, really Christian act in this whole sorry saga. Bravo to Mario Mallia and his team.
I too need to do my bit. If I were to be invited to an interfaith prayer service at the new Muslim prayer room, I would accept gladly – after all, the Popes have done it, and who am I to judge the Popes?
Just a load of gas
Have you seen the latest representation of the many-bosomed goddess Astarte that is now moored in Marsaxlokk under her temple at Tas-Silġ? With its five huge white mammary glands the Armada LNG Mediterrana gas tanker is truly an impressive sight, inviting the multitudes to seek succour at its teats.
I wonder if they know of the ancient curse of Astarte, which I have just made up: ‘Beware ye of the milk of the goddess: you suckle at your peril’.
Only joking, of course. There’s no milk. It’s just a load of gas.