Opposition leader Simon Busuttil will never accept the removal of crucifixes from public spaces but is calling on the Nationalist Party to be more accepting of other religions.
“The crucifix is not just a religious symbol; it is a symbol of tradition, and therefore is not there just for Christians,” Dr Busuttil said during an interfaith conference organised by the party’s equal opportunities forum.
His views were enthusiastically received by conference participants. A subsequent reply from a representative of the Malta Humanist Association, Gail Debono, was loudly shouted down, forcing the moderator to intervene. Ms Debono had suggested that crucifixes were appropriate in private and religious institutions, but not in secular public buildings.
Closing the conference, which saw interventions from representatives of different belief systems, Dr Busuttil said the PN had never been an “exclusive club for Christians” but an open party that supported tolerance and liberty. He referred to statistics showing that less than half of those under 50 regularly attended Mass as evidence of the decline of Christianity’s predominance.
“We are informed by Christian beliefs, but society has changed and if we don’t recognise that change, we are failing in our goal of representing all of Maltese society.”
Dr Busuttil said the Christian values the party held dear – equality, tolerance and the protection of human dignity – transcended Christianity and were accessible to anyone, irrespective of their beliefs.
“Religio et patria is part of our tradition but it is not written in any statute,” he said. “Today, when we say religio et patria we have to ask: which religion? And to be inclusive, we have to refer to more than one religion.”
The Opposition leader appeared keen to deflect attention from ongoing questions on the proposed removal of vilification laws, the introduction of embryo freezing and the banning of the niqab.
“The real issue we should be discussing is corruption, which shows the true lack of values of a government whose only credo is opinion polls,” he said.
Also speaking during the conference, Imam Mohammed El Sadi said the party had a “moral duty” to counter populist fearmongering with the truth.
“Islam is constantly under attack in popular discourse, which is not helping integration,” he said.
Condemning the actions of groups such as the so-called Islamic State, which he said were not reflections of Islam, he joked: “If Isis were to come to Malta, I would be the first person they’d kill.”