The Imam yesterday urged the authorities and the Church to raise their voices against "evil" racism and to mete out appropriate punishments against those who committed racially motivated crimes.

Imam Mohammed El Saadi said too often the sentence handed down against racial aggression was "too light", which sent the wrong message to the perpetrator.

"Racism is a protest against the will of God," he said, during the short funeral service of Sudanese immigrant Suleiman Ismail Abubaker at the mosque in Corradino.

Mr Abubaker died on June 9, 11 days after suffering a fractured skull and lung contusion; injuries he sustained during a brawl in Paceville on May 29.

Witnesses have told a court Mr Abubaker was punched as he tried to enter a club drunk and later kicked by an unidentified person. Nightclub bouncer Duncan Deguara, 29, has since been charged with causing serious injury, followed by death.

Stills produced in court from CCTV cameras that captured the commotion were not clear enough for investigators to establish precisely what happened.

In his sermon, Imam El Saadi condemned the "racist aggression against Abubaker" and said racism was "unjust, immoral and inhuman".

He made an appeal for the world not to be divided in black or white, rich or poor but to live together in peace.

While urging the Maltese to show more sympathy towards immigrants, he urged the Muslim community to be law-abiding and to steer clear from practices or places that "contradict our faith".

As the Imam prayed on the coffin of Mr Abubaker, which was laid on the thick carpet lining the mosque's floor, some 20 mourners, mostly Maltese, stood sparsely with their head bowed.

Mr Abubaker's Sudanese friends were conspicuously absent from the funeral, a sign of solidarity with the deceased's brother who was stuck in Tripoli.

The hundreds who attended a peace walk held last Saturday following Mr Abubaker's death were expected to turn up for the service but there were none of his Sudanese friends to carry the coffin from the hearse to the mosque.

The funeral was initially scheduled for last Friday but was postponed to give his brother time to fly in. However, sources said Mr Abubaker's brother appeared to have had problems obtaining a travel visa and nobody knew if or when he would reach Malta.

"The organisers felt the funeral couldn't be put off any longer. On the other hand, Abubaker's friends believed they would be accomplices if they attended - their culture encourages them to show respect to the brother, who did not want Abubaker to be buried without him," the sources said.

Mr Abubaker, who died alone in a hospital bed because the Sudanese community at the Marsa open centre was not informed their friend was in a coma, was practically buried alone.

Despite the lonely journey into the next world, his death has sparked a heated debate.

Fr Mark Montebello said Mr Abubaker's simple ritual signalled the funeral of Malta's age of innocence. "Malta has blood on its hands. It is the culture of oppression and intolerance that led to Abubaker's death," he said, as the immigrant's shrouded body was being lifted from the coffin and laid to rest in the mosque's cemetery.

The handful of friends, who walked through the dry soil behind the coffin, described Mr Abubaker as full of life, a man who was no saint but was neither violent; a level-headed person and a go-getter.

"He really wanted to integrate in both work and entertainment. He was not a Muslim fundamentalist or a man who wanted to push his religion on others. On the contrary, he tried to adapt to our culture," Michael Grech, a teacher who knew Mr Abubaker, said.