That Sliema mosque again

The planning authority has clamped down on the use of a Sliema flat as a place where Muslims gather for prayer. I know which flat this is because it’s round the corner from where I grew up and where my parents still live and has been a gathering-place for Muslims for many years.

The planning authority acted on the complaints of those who live in other flats in the same block, who couldn’t stand all the comings and goings and the noise. It was right to act because you can’t just convert your flat into a church, mosque, synagogue or prayer-hall and expect your neighbours to put up with it. It’s not the religion that’s the problem but all the foot-traffic and the bustle.

Just round the corner from this flat, in the street where my parents live, there was another flat used for a similar purpose – this time by one of those Catholic prayer groups. On a summer evening, with all the windows thrown open, they would sing, shout, and pray at the tops of their voices, clapping loudly at intervals. The neighbours would have to close their windows tight and turn up the air-conditioning, or just leave the house until the prayer meetings were over.

Eventually, they found somewhere else to meet and left, but if it had gone on for longer, it would have been necessary for the neighbours to preserve their sanity by making a formal complaint. So as I said, it’s not about the religion, but about the inconvenience.

Unfortunately, the bigots on the internet have misinterpreted the move and are congratulating the MEPA for slamming down on this ‘mosque’. “If MEPA doesn’t put its foot down,” one person wrote, “we will end up like England, where they think they can have a mosque in every town. We must remember that Malta is a Catholic country.”

With six churches or more in every town, how can we forget?