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The Yemen Times has published yet another article which celebrates Islam's role in a non-muslim country.
Am I a muezzin in Malta? This expression is said by an exasperated speaker who is being ignored by his or her audience. An expression which probably stems from the observation that very few people in Malta, if any, are Muslim. The call of the muezzin there is assumed to fall on deaf ears.However this assumption does not hold true any longer. There is nowadays a small but thriving Muslim community in Malta. It numbers a few thousands out of a national population of about 400 000. It also includes many expatriates hailing from all Muslim countries of Africa and the Middle East as well as Asia and Europe. The Muslims in Malta form a multicultural group. The individual members of this group retained the traditions and the customs of their respective ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But at the same time, these differences have gradually combined to make one distinct community. Islam is, of course, the common denominator which holds the different members together. This unity and the manifestation of Islam are most evident during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Now that Ramadan has begun, the daily routines of people in Muslim societies change. However the Muslims in Malta are a minority, and a relatively new one at that, within a mostly Roman Catholic populace. Thus the everyday pace of everyday life is not affected on a national scale: people must still to go to work at normal working hours; children still need to go to school. This poses significant difficulties to Muslims who seek to fulfill all their rigorous religious obligations of fasting and prayers. Nonetheless, most manage to do just that, a behaviour admired even by many non-Muslims.
The Islamic Cultural Centre in Malta is the fulcrum around which all major religious activities turn. It was founded by the Islamic Call Society whose headquarters are in Tripoli, Libya. The Centre comprises the mosque, administrative offices, a primary school and the Imam's house. Since its cornerstone was laid by Colonel Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, the Libyan head of state and leader of the Revolution, on 2nd July, 1978, the Centre has aimed at rendering service to the Muslim community in Malta by the performance of religious rites, the celebration of religious occasions as well as the promotion of the Arabic language and the Islamic culture. The Centre also aims at acquainting the general Maltese public with Islam while enhancing dialogue and cooperation for the benefit of all. The Centre's helping hands extend to the poor, the refugees and prisoners. The Islamic Centre is the most important meeting point for Muslims in the country.
At the end of Ramadan, the Centre organises the Eid el-Fitr festival. The adjacent primary school is allowed a few days of holidays so that the students can celebrate the Eid with their families. Moreover, a formal reception is held at the Centre to which the Prime Minister of Malta and other honourable guests are invited. This annual event reinforces the excellent relations which the Centre, representing the Muslim community, has with the local authorities.
The Maltese islands with a total area of 316 km_ make up a small republic in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The capital city is Valletta. Their history has been described as chequered because all the powers that were ever present in the Mediterranean region have left their impact. Prior to independence in 1964, the Maltese islands have ended up as possessions or colonies of foreign powers including the Arabs in 870. The Maltese language is a direct result of this mixture of cultures. After 1090, European powers secured the Maltese islands into their realms and the islands eventually served as Europe's southern border and a bulwark of Christianity. Meanwhile new words from Italian and other European languages were assimilated into the Maltese language but the Semitic background prevailed.
Posted by at November 12, 2005 5:32 PM
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Malta is being completely overrun by Mohammedans (and some other Africans) who try to make it to Italy in leaky boats. They drift off towards the east and end up in Malta that 'has to take them in' according to some EU-rules. Eu-rules, that means the first country where 'refugees' arrive in Europe has to accept them.
I just watched a report on that. Malta, a small island in the mediterranean, is totally overwhelmed by this infiltration and had to ask the EU for help.
The EU has now sent a commission there to investigate the problem....
Posted by: sheik yer'mami![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 12, 2005 6:06 PM
Forget about France, England, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany. Forget about Malta, Sicily, Sardinia. Forget about the Saudi-financed preachers in East Africa, in West Africa. Forget about the steady encroachment of Islam among the remaining non-Muslims in Nigeria and Sudan and the Ivory Coast and Togo. Forget about the mosques being built in Latin America, and especially Mexico and Brazil. Forget the attempts at Da'wa among the prison populations in America, England, France, where the number of Muslim prisoners is already so disproportionately high, and the need, often born of fear, to get along with the Muslims within a prison can cause local non-Muslims to convert to Islam, and having an umma to which one belongs, that gives one a ready-made group of "Brothers," joined in the perfect vehicle -- Islam -- for now expressing one's alienation from and hatred for The System or The Man or Capitalism or whatever it is one doesn't like. Forget it all.
Concentrate on that "total victory" in that "war on terror" in that place called "Iraq."
And keep concentrating on that place called "Iraq," keep pouring money and men and materiel into it. Do it even as the army suffers. Do it even as the morale of the soldiers plummets. Do it, because otherwise you might have to admit you were wrong. Do it, because otherwise you might have to figure out how to phrase things, how to explain things, how to endure the demands that the Americans stay "because we broke it, we fix it" as the great explicator, and all-round Wise Man, Tom Friedman, has told us.
Do it, because it is easier to endure the deaths of more men -- hell, they are expendable, and the ones who sign up for the Reserves and the National Guard just for the tuition benefits -- hey, they've had it too easy for too long. These are not our sons. These are the sons of -- well, those others whom it is so easy to enroll in urrah-patriotism. They are expendable.
Meanwhile, let's have that tax cut. And no estate tax. And let's not do anything that might suggest any one might have made an error, by refusing to understand either Islam, or Iraq.
Never apologize. Never explain. Others can pay for our errors. We can't. It wouldn't be right. We shall neither falter nor fail. We shall not cut. And we shall not run. We Will Be Satisfied With Nothing Less Than Total Victory.
Posted by: Hugh
at November 12, 2005 6:30 PM
Malta figured prominently in the 16th century in stopping the Islamic advance in the Mediterranean. While Charles V was reclaiming Hungary from the Ottoman Turks, and being victorious in 1532, and tranferred the war into the Mediterranean.
In 1530 Pope Clement VII advised Charles V to give Malta to the Knights Templar, the Defenders of Rhodes, to block Turkish aggression into the Tuscan Sea. With Andrea Doria in 1532, Charles V battled the Turks in the Mediterranean and the Islamic pirates operating out of Tunis.
In 1539, the Knights Templar of Malta paid tribute to Charles V by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with the rarest of jewels, but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.
Posted by: Lisa at November 12, 2005 8:16 PM
The fact that men like you and Mr. Spencer can not get elected to even the most minor office, not even the benevolent order of the elves of middle earth, thanks in no small part to the PC culture, speaks volumes about the state of democracy in America today.
I guess if the population refuses to be roused from their slumber, worrying only about the here and now problems of life, the issues of money, taxes, global warming, the economy, etc… All the while, they neglect the most vital issues that threaten the survival of the West as a civilized, prosperous, free, and just place amid oceans of barbarity, poverty, tyranny, and injustice.
If the environmentalists are so worried about global warming: well, boys and gals, nothing is warmer than a multi megaton nuclear blast, and nothing is more environmentally devastating. Two fanatical Muslim nations, Pakistan and Iran, now own the bomb and they are nearly in possession of the intercontinental ballistic means of delivering them. There have been many far and wide claims that Soviet suitcase bombs have been acquired by Muslim Jihadis.
It seems that we are heading to an existential confrontation that could be one-sided because the West is drunk on the job, drunk by the poisonous wine of apathy, cowardice, and malcontent.
Posted by: have_mercy
at November 12, 2005 8:26 PM
So, mean old insensitive Malta still runs its work days and school days on a non-Muslim schedule, making it so difficult for Muslims to fulfill their rigorous religious obligations. Not to worry; As Muslims numbers grow, so will Malta's concessions towards all of their religious sensibilities. And, before anyone realizes it, Malta's church bells will be silent and non-Muslims will have to fulfill their religious duties on Fridays, not Sundays, just like in other Muslim countries. How sad for this small, brave country who once showed great courage.
Posted by: maryrose at November 12, 2005 9:49 PM
Lisa mentions the Knights Templar who were given Malta as a bulwark against Muslims who had for centuries been a Mediterranean menace to Europe in one way or another (attacks and piracy). I believe Malta was part of an "island-hopping" retreat out of the Levant over the centuries after the West was in effect defeated and pushed back from its initial Crusader attempts at trying to topple the evil Muslim Occupiers: the island-hopping went from Cyprus to Rhodes to Malta.
Posted by: Dr. Pepper at November 12, 2005 10:15 PM
Malta was not given to the Knights Templar. It was given to the Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem(The Hospitallers). The Hospitallers fought off an attempted invasion of Malta in 1565. Suleiman the Magnificent wanted Malta as a deepwater port for his planned invasion of Italy/Europe. He figured, since he couldn't get past Vienna, he'd go around it. 592 Knights fought against a force estimated between 40,000-80,000 Ottoman soldiers and were eventually saved by the landing of a small Spanish/Italian relief force that the Ottomans over-estimated. Only about 6,000 relief forces arrived but it panicked the Turkish army and they fled. The Ottomans pretty much destroyed the Island and everything needed to be rebuilt. When the capitol was rebuilt, it was renamed Valletta after Jean de la Vallette, the Grandmaster of the Knights of St.John who led their forces against the Ottomans. The Hospitallers also provided multiple ships for the eventual Battle of Lepanto, where European forces(led by the aformentioned Andrea Doria) took dominion over the Mediterranean by defeating the Turkish fleet.
Posted by: MickC at November 13, 2005 12:57 AM
And don't forget the heroism of the Siege of Malta in 1940-43 when the island stood so firm against the Axis powers with such bravery against bombing that made the London Blitz pale in comparison that King George awarded the whole island the George Cross (for civilian valour, cf the Victoria Cross for the armed forces)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A1144946
I have many Maltese friends who believed that it was a mistake to forge such strong trade and cultural links with Gaddafi and Libya during the 1970s. The twice weekly Libyan ferry was one of the poshist vessels in Valletta harbour when I visited a few years ago.
Posted by: Granny Weatherwax
at November 13, 2005 6:19 AM
The Maltese language isn't just Semitic, but actually of Arabic derivation.
Posted by: Kepha at November 13, 2005 12:23 PM
I have read some controvery in the origins of Maltese. Some people claim a phoenician origin. and that the language was arabized and then took on Sicilian words. Apparently Lebanese has a large amount of Phoenician in its arabic. therefore the similarity with maltese and some arabic dialects. But I dont speak either of these languages. Just writing what I have read.
Posted by: pissedoffcanadian at November 13, 2005 7:59 PM
Whatever it's origins I am told it is one of the more difficult languages for an English speaker to learn in adulthood. My source for this information is my Maltese neighbour who spoke it as a child in Sliema, but now is less confident and speaks it with a Cockney accent to the amusement of his family there. His sons, intelligent young men who have tried, speak very little.
Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at November 14, 2005 3:05 AM
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