Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/844884
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 05 JULY 2017 • ISSUE 545 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Far right urges government to backtrack on religious vilification law TIM DIACONO THE leader of the far-right 'Pa- triots' party has said he ripped out Jesus' face from a contro- versial public advert satirising the Last Supper to discourage people from vilifying religions. Henry Battistino told Mal- taToday that true Christians were genuinely hurt at the New York Best poster depicting Jesus and his apostles eating fast food, and that the outrage should convince the govern- ment to backtrack on its deci- sion to decriminalise the vilifi- cation of religion. Religious vilification was de- criminalised last year as part of a package of laws intended to protect artists against censor- ship. However, Battistino said that the government's decision has hurt many true believers and that his vandalism was intended to raise awareness against the new law. "It's fine to criticise religions, and indeed I criticise Islam as an invasive religion, but vilify- ing and caricaturing religions should be out of bounds and I would never vilify Islam," he said. "If someone had put up a poster ridiculing your mother then you would have got angry too. "Joseph Muscat has had no problem admitting mistakes in the past, and now I am asking him to admit that this law was a mistake too." PAGE 3 Patriots' leader Henry Battistino (left) and candidate Desmond Falzon pose with the ripped poster If it made things 'simpler', Muscat would take blame for migration YANNICK PACE THE European Union cannot expect to show solidarity and deliver an effective means of tackling migration into Europe, if the Euro- pean Council fails to have an honest discus- sion about its values and what it believes in, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said. "I would, if I could, take the blame for the migration problem because that would make it a simple one," the Prime Minister said. Muscat, addressing the European Parlia- ment during a closing review of Malta's presidency of the Council of the EU, said neither the European Commission, nor the European Parliament, could be blamed for the problem. The problem, he said, was the European Council – the institution made up of the leaders of each member state – since there was no common long-term policy for deal- ing with the phenomenon. Muscat said the Maltese presidency had "inched forward" and made some progress. He said the EU's mission to Libya had suc- cessfully convinced some 5,000 individu- als not to cross the Mediterranean and had agreed to return to their country of origin. "I must stress that for every person that is convinced, there is a huge effort by all of us," the Prime Minister said, adding that it was his hope the number would increase to 10,000 by the end of the year. Prime minister says EU leaders are to blame for lack of solidarity among member states on irregular migration PAGE 6 Joseph Muscat