It has been two weeks of controversy as Muslims descended on Msida to pray. Bader Zina, the face of that community, speaks to Kurt Sansone about Islam and the misconceptions that surround it.

The smell of roast coffee infused with cardamom wafted into the office before Bader Zina walked in with a pot and two glasses.

He poured the Arabian traditional coffee and sat down at his desk. He was almost an hour late for the interview having got caught up at the health centre after his son injured himself.

“I need it,” he says, as he sips from the glass, his wide eyes closing with satisfaction.

Mr Zina’s face was plastered all over the television screens and newspapers for the past two weeks. He is the spokesman and one of the founders of the Malta Muslim Council (Foundation), which among its many social and religious activities held Friday prayers in a public square in Msida.

The public display of Islam caused ripples of controversy and even prompted a protest last Sunday by the anti-immigrant Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin.

But Mr Zina is far from disheartened by the debate that accompanied the community’s decision to get a police permit and pray in the open.

“The whole affair has made us more aware of the lack of information,” he says.

He does not pass judgement on those who felt threatened by the prayer meetings but reflects on what might have led to the negative reaction.

“If I invite you to enter a dark room, I can expect you to be afraid because you do not know what is inside. When I switch on the light and reveal a welcoming environment you will be relieved and probably make it yours.”

Mr Zina speaks of the birth pangs of a community that has grown over time and is trying to be part of a secular society that embraces freedom of religion.

He says many have failed to notice the growth of the Muslim community, which encompasses a considerable number of Maltese citizens and whose religious and social needs may not have been met.

For many years the face of Islam in Malta was represented solely by the Paola mosque, he says. But as the community grew and diversified, so did its religious, social and material needs.

I interrupt him: there have been rumours that the problem of not having enough space to pray is partly caused by the Paola mosque’s refusal to accept all Muslims.

Mr Zina shrugs off the suggestion. “At an administrative level there was never a clash or animosity of any kind between us and the leaders of the Paola mosque.” He says the Muslim community has outgrown the Paola mosque, which cannot accommodate everyone for Friday prayers. It is this, coupled with a yearning to offer Muslims a different footing, which prompted the creation of the Malta Muslim Council.

The council is a foundation that started in 2012 but was only formally set up last summer. Its administrators and founders are Muslim Maltese citizens like Mr Zina, coming from different countries.

As he speaks on the need for prayer rooms around the island, his mobile rings. It is a call he has been expecting. I pick up the word “Hamdulillah”, several times as Mr Zina speaks in Arabic to the individual on the other side of the line.

The woman is the jewel of the family and although she can work this must not come at the expense of harming the family’s unity

“Thanks be to God,” he tells me with reference to the phone call. A temporary solution has been found, he says with reference to the agreement reached with the government for the use of Ospizio in Floriana for Friday prayers by the Muslim community.

It has been a 15-year struggle to have prayer rooms in localities other than Paola, he adds. But why are such locations important?

“Practising Muslims are obliged to say Salah (prayers) five times a day and on Friday pray with the community. Having prayer rooms spread out would enable both locals and travellers to fulfil their religious obligations with the least impact,” Mr Zina says.

But they also have a socio-religious function, he adds. Just like Catholics in Malta have MUSEUM classes, the prayer rooms also serve as education centres, he says.

“It is not just religious education that is disseminated here, but also information to people who would have arrived here and are oblivious to the country’s social and cultural norms,” Mr Zina says, pointing out that the foundation wants to help Muslims integrate in society.

There is also a social dimension to the work the foundation carries out. The community provides, within its limited means, social assistance to members who are poor or facing difficulties.

He then opens a file on his computer and scrolls through dozens of photos, documenting the work done by the foundation. He stops on a photo depicting foodstuff.

“During Ramadan we collected alms from members in the form of foodstuff and distributed this to families in need. We also went to the detention centre and distributed food there,” he says, as he scrolls down the pictures on his screen.

It is work the foundation has not spoken about openly and he shrugs at the suggestion of communicating this aspect to the public. “Islam tells us not to be boastful about acts of charity.”

Mr Zina says that when the number of migrants arriving in Malta started to increase some 10 years ago, members of the Muslim community used to visit them in detention and act as interlocutors between them and the authorities.

“We helped mediate when issues cropped up as a result of social and religious differences,” he says.

He uses these examples to show how the Muslim community is contributing to society in a positive way. And then he shows me more photos on the computer screen of social events in public places organised by the foundation. All is done on a voluntary basis, he says, pointing to a celebration held at Ta’ Qali on the birth of a child to one of the families.

Another photo portrays a group of men wearing military gear. “This is not Isis,” he says with a smile.

“It is a paintball event between three chapters of Business Network International (BNI). They are non-Muslim friends.”

The conversation opens up a different Muslim world to the one most people are accustomed to hear and see.

Mr Zina says people misunderstand Islam and points his finger to “misinformation, miseducation and mis-media [a term he coins]”.

He does acknowledge the Muslim community may not have done enough to communicate with the rest of society but insists the media is partly to blame for the perception that Islam is a violent religion.

I insist: can anyone be blamed if terrorists blow themselves up in the name of Islam, and Isis proclaims to uphold a murderous form of Islam?

“As a Muslim I am being made to shoulder the responsibility for every violent action perpetrated by terrorists who use Islam as an excuse. Is this fair?”

It is a pertinent question. These individuals are just a fraction of a fraction of the billions of Muslims around the world, he insists. It was not Muslims who started the first and second world wars that killed so many people, he observes.

He continues that the version of Islam proclaimed by Isis is not Islam at all.

What about Isis’ belief that non-believers can be kept as slaves and raped at will?

Mr Zina insists Islamic scriptures going back more than 1,400 years state that for God to forgive someone who has sinned badly, the person must release a slave from captivity. “Then, slavery was a social norm in many countries across the world but Islam rejected it and what Isis proclaims is not what Islam says.”

However, he urges people to ask themselves who helped create Isis in the first place. The links between the American CIA agency and Al-Qaeda are well-documented, he says. Isis eventually grew out of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and found fertile ground among those groups who were opposed to the US presence in their country.

Mr Zina raises these arguments to depict the unfairness of a prevalent discourse that depicts the world in black and white, as if Islam is completely wrong and in total conflict with western secular values.

He turns the discussion to the Cologne incidents at the beginning of the year when scores of women in the German city were subjected to sexual harassment by groups of men, described as North African Muslims.

“That was non-Islamic behaviour and the perpetrators may not even be practising Muslims. I condemn those incidents but it is unfair to tar me and other Muslims with the same brush.”

I argue there appears to be a cultural dissonance between Islamic beliefs and the norms of a secular society. There have been cases in Italy where the children of Muslim families were killed by their own parents for falling in love with Catholic partners.

As a Muslim I am being made to shoulder the responsibility for every violent action perpetrated by terrorists who use Islam as an excuse. Is this fair?

“They are isolated cases and do not represent all Muslims,” he insists, adding those actions are wrong. Islam protects the individual’s right to do as they please, he says when I ask whether the families even had a right to chastise their children.

“Every father wants the best for his children and tries to give them values to live well. It is my duty as a father to tell my children what Islam’s guidelines are but eventually they have to live their life. How is this different from the advice any other father, Catholic or not, would give his children?”

Mr Zina moves on to address, what he describes as the impression that Islam is a male religion. Questions were raised as to why only men were present for the prayer meetings in Msida.

He says Islam does not oblige women to pray in a congregation every Friday like men are. But the lack of women also has to do with the close proximity and posture adopted during prayers, he adds.

“No woman would be comfortable praying in that way with a man behind her,” he says.

But what if a woman has no problem with this, or wants to join the congregation and stay at the back; can she?

While insisting that he finds it hard to believe any woman would be comfortable in such a position, Mr Zina concedes that she has a right to pray.

Can Muslim women work?

“Yes and they can have their own commercial activity. Islam has also always protected their right to inheritance at a time when women were considered a man’s property in different religions and countries across the world.”

But his comment comes with a caveat. Mr Zina is critical of the culture that insists women have to go out and work. He says this creates pressure on the family.

“The woman is the jewel of the family and although she can work this must not come at the expense of harming the family’s unity. Taking care of the family is important because it makes for stronger societies.”

The conversation now resembles an exchange no different I would have had with a conservative Catholic, who would subscribe to similar views. I realise this is not just about Islam but a mentality that contrasts traditionalists with modernists. Determining who is right will always remain subject to intense debate and in an interview that has now lasted almost two hours, I have no intention of taking the matter further.

But Mr Zina wants to address the fear expressed by people that Muslims will want to impose Sharia law (Islamic law) on Malta. He says this is not possible because Islam lists specific conditions for Sharia law to become the law of the State.

Muslims have to be a majority in the country and a majority of them would want Sharia law to be the law of the State similar to democratic practices, he says. But even if these two conditions are met, the leaders of the country would also have to be in favour, he adds.

“All these conditions have to be met together and if any of them is missing Sharia law can never be implemented. No individual or group that says it wants to introduce Sharia can do so.”

His phone rings again. He has to rush to another interview. It has been a hectic day and Mr Zina excuses himself for ending the interview abruptly.

The smell of coffee has somewhat faded. Before we bid each other farewell he invites me for another discussion some other time... and a strong cup of coffee.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com