Muslims and members of other minority religions should not be allowed to pray in public as long as Malta is a Catholic-majority country, according to the leaders of a self-styled patriots group.
Some 300 people gathered in front of the Msida parish church yesterday morning for a protest called by the Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin after a group of Muslims met for Friday prayers in the same spot over recent weeks.
Despite efforts by organisers to restrain protesters, a mood of hostility dominated proceedings, with members of the media subjected to sustained verbal abuse. One protester was detained by police after he shoved several journalists and grabbed another’s camera.
Organisers also attempted to prevent journalists from speaking to individual protesters with particularly extreme views, claiming they were not representative of the main group.
“We aren’t comfortable with different cultures and religions practising in public,” group president Alex Pisani told the Times of Malta. “The existing mosque has enough room for them to pray without offending Maltese sentiment.”
The Muslim group who met for prayers in Msida said their meetings were intended to highlight their need for more centrally located premises where to pray, having been previously stopped from meeting in private apartments due to a lack of permits.
Group members also handed out gammon sandwiches in protest
When pressed on how Muslims could legally be prevented from praying in public without violating anti-discrimination laws, Mr Pisani said only that public prayers were “just the start” and that Muslims would eventually start seizing territory.
“I believe in the right of every religion to express itself, but I also believe in common sense and decency,” said businessman George Tabone, who was invited to address protestors. “The Islamic community has been welcomed here but doing something to provoke the Maltese people shows a lack of ethics.”
Echoing the views of many protestors who spoke to this newspaper, group secretary Henry Battistino said Catholics should be entitled to more rights than adherents of other faiths due to Catholicism’s status in the Constitution.
Group members also handed out gammon sandwiches in protest against an alleged incident at St Paul’s Bay primary school, when children who brought in ham sandwiches were supposedly intimidated by their Muslim peers.
Protesters said the issue had been raised in a sermon by St Paul’s Bay parish priest Fr Michael Attard. When contacted by this newspaper, however, Fr Attard insisted the matter had been blown out of proportion.
“I heard from some social workers that something of the sort had happened and mentioned it in passing,” he said. “I don’t know when it happened or whether it was one student or 10.”
In a statement, the school denied that there had ever been any requests to ban ham from children’s lunches. Education minister Evarist Bartolo also said the claims were “absolute nonsense”, describing the school as a “shining example” of cultural and religious diversity.