The Malta Humanist Association has dismissed the Catholic Church's and Islam's stands on the family as being based on an "ancient myth about a man, a woman and a snake".
A joint statement issued by the newly-founded association and the Malta Gay Rights Movement said the two organisations were both "deeply concerned" by statements on the family issued on Thursday by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Ammar Hreba, head of the Islamic Centre and Propagation Bureau. The statements were made at a seminar on "the identity and the role of the family in a globalised society" from a "Muslim-Christian perspective".
In a paper prepared and presented by Imam Muhammed el Sadi, homosexuality was lambasted as "unnatural, immoral, unhealthy and fruitless".
In their rebuttal, the MHA and the MGRM said "reports of this seminar suggest a 'marriage of convenience' between Malta's two largest religious denominations, specifically to propagate views on marriage and human sexuality which both (organisations) consider to be inherently flawed".
It was alarming, the statement said, "that such influential institutions should use their combined strength to prevent couples of the same gender from marrying, simply because of an ancient myth about a man, a woman and a talking snake", referring to the first chapters in the book of Genesis, considered a holy book by both faiths.
They said the comments reported yesterday suggested a literal interpretation of the creation myth.
Mr Hreba's statement that "if we let the family collapse, there will be catastrophe and destruction. Same-sex marriage destroys the entity of the family, which began with Adam and Eve" was tantamount to hate speech, the two organisations said. They urged him to "retract the statement and apologise for the hurt caused to thousands of Maltese citizens currently in same-sex relationships".
"Same-sex marriage is no more a threat to heterosexual couples and straight families than space exploration or deep sea diving" the MGRM said, adding the focus should instead be on poverty, poor parenting, domestic violence and unemployment, among others.