Some 400 members of the Muslim community in Malta today met for their Friday midday prayers at the Ospizio in Floriana.

The community will be using the site, which forms part of a complex of buildings used by the Education Department, temporarily until a long-term solution is found.

For three Fridays in a row, the community met in front of the Msida parish for prayers because they had been evicted from their meeting places.

The community was yesterday given the Ospizio to use temporarily, five days after a group of people protested against their presence there.

The Education Ministry today provided transport from Msida to Floriana for those who might not have been aware of the new meeting place and went to Msida instead. 

Malta Muslim Council spokesman Bader Zina said people had failed to understand why the community had been meeting in Msida and why its members needed a place to pray.

But now, even due to media coverage, the community was given the opportunity to make its voice heard and the Ospizio was offered as a temporary solution to the problem.

Mr Zina said the community was very grateful to the government’s understanding and said that discussions were ongoing to find a permanent solution of benefit to all.

Photo: Sarah Carabott