A satirical Maltese Facebook page is urging viewers to send St Paul "back to his country" and avoid 'terrorist' Isis chardonnay wine.

Mimicking the comments often seen on the Facebook walls of local anti-immigration groups and pages, the administrators of the so-called Defenders of the Maltese Cross, say they are fighting fire with fire.

"One evening, we decided to set up a parody page and, using the same ridiculous logic racists use, we created memes to stir them up," one of the page's administrators said. 

One of the satirical memes claims St Paul had come to Malta by boat like African migrants and urges viewers to like and share "to send him back to his country".

The administrators said the post was inspired by xenophobic posts by local Facebook users, which often call for migrants to be pushed back illegally. 

Another 'racist' post urges viewers not to eat imqaret (traditional date-filled pastries) as these were introduced to Malta by the Arabs. 

The trend of mocking racist memes gained popularity on social media over the summer, particularly in the UK, the flames of fear and irrationality fanned by extreme right wing organisations.

In a matter of days, the Defenders' page gained hundreds of likes and has uploaded dozens of memes and other images poking fun at local racists. The cover photo shows a Maltese flag with the words 'Gow Beck'.

The administrators said it had become especially difficult to take down local racist groups and pages because Facebook did not yet have a Maltese dictionary to translate hate speech for moderators.

"But we weren't going to stop without a fight ! As they say, if you can't beat em, join em," the administrator said.

"We're quite happy with the community at the moment, comedy is a good mediator for troubled times."