Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 Interview 14 By Raphael Vassallo Before the interview, I read an article you wrote last June about the pre-electoral campus debate. You argued that the presence of a far-right party (Moviment Patrijotti Maltin) "speaks volumes about the failure of all political parties to address the rights of minorities in our country." Yet MPM got only a handful of votes in that election... and it is debatable to what extent it really represents typical Maltese attitudes towards Muslims. In your own experience, how racist is Malta towards its Muslim population? The way I see it, even the fact that we use the word 'racism' – as if Islam was 'a race' - is a problem. Islam is not a race. I myself believe there is only one human race: but the real danger is that, if we look upon religion as a 'race' issue, or an ethnicity issue, then it would follow that a Maltese person of a different religion would be regarded as 'not Maltese'. That, to me, is a problem in itself. We talk about 'racism', but 'Islamophobia' is never really spoken about. We speak about dis- crimination in general, but there are different kinds of discrimina- tion. Hate speech, especially on- line, is a very big problem... You have, in fact, been on the receiving end of a lot of online hate speech in recent years. But while the comments are painful to read, it remains a fact that Malta has passed anti-hate speech legislation. This sort of behaviour is illegal here... so isn't it a case that action is being taken against hate speech in Malta? Hate speech is a crime, but it's not easy to take criminal action against it. I don't understand why you have to actually go to the police station to file a written report: when hate speech is conducted openly online, and the police can easily access the internet themselves... But do you expect the police to be scouring the internet for hate speech? Surely a complaint has to be made, for action to be taken.... Yes, but when I tried to draw the police's attention to online hate speech directed at me... that's what I was told. That I have to go to the station and file a written report. Why? I don't want to say that 'I don't trust the authorities'... but these are personal things, and every person has a different opinion on it. Even if the police, in their adminis- trative capacity, are trained not to be biased... you don't know what you will be faced with. It's not just me, by the way. Other people fear reporting hate speech for the same reason. They don't feel comfortable making a report. That is another problem: most of the mechanisms that exist are not actually being used. This emerges even from re- search by other organisations, such as the People For Change Founda- tion. There is also the issue of juris- diction that has cropped up recent- ly: if it's someone foreign writing hate speech, it is difficult for the Maltese authorities to intervene... Implicit in many of these hate comments is the view (still evidently widespread) that 'Maltese identity' somehow precludes being Muslim. As a Maltese Muslim, how do you respond to arguments that this country somehow belongs (or should belong) to one particular religion and/or cultural mindset? The main problem with far right groups claiming to be 'Christian', is that personally, I don't think Christianity actually preaches these values. Discriminating against someone is clearly not in line with Christian beliefs. So even the fact that this organisation [MPM] claims to be 'patriotic' is in itself controversial. Not to point fingers at that particular organisa- tion all the time... but they are the most vocal in this regard. Coming back to your election debate article... MPM were not the only party at that debate. You also criticised the other parties – especially Labour and PN – for generally avoiding the topic altogether. Would you agree that mainstream political parties are afraid of broaching this issue for fear of losing votes? I was actually pleased that the Prime Minister made an official statement, on Twitter, in support of my anti-hate speech campaign this week. I have won other awards before, but it has always been very difficult to get recognition locally. For instance, I have received pri- vate support from both parties, but never directly a public acknowl- edgement. And that's important... not for my sake, but for the sake of actually standing up and saying 'Listen: this is wrong'. And not just ignoring it, and letting it happen. And the same thing is happening with integration in general. The general attitude is: 'figure it out yourselves'. There is no adequate policy dealing with it; it's always being discussed, but nothing ever happens on the ground. Even when researching the organisations and institutions involved... there are no specific reports about Islamo- phobia, for instance. Everything falls under the category of 'racism', or 'discrimination' in general. So I feel there is a misconception every- where: even among the highest au- thorities of Malta, which are sup- posed to be informed... even about policy, etc. Let's talk a little about the difference between 'racism' and 'Islamophobia'. There are many things that happen in Islamic countries - public executions, flogging, treatment of women, homophobia, etc. – that people from different cultures find very difficult to digest. Is it 'Islamophobic' to express those sentiments in words? Is it 'hate speech' to criticise a country like (for instance) Saudi Arabia over its very public human rights violations? I think it comes from the under- lying fear – that's why the word 'phobia' is part of Islamophobia. There is an element of fear. And the fact that there is no clear road- map of where this is all heading... just fear, fear, fear... is obviously problematic. To have a discussion, you need to have a clear concept of what Islam is... rather than just discussing individual things that happen in certain Islamic coun- tries. One of the comments I often get, for instance, is: 'Why do you do this here? Why don't you do it in Saudi Arabia?' But why should I do it in Saudi Arabia? I'm not from Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia is not the only Islamic state. People tend to equate 'Islam' with an indi- vidual country, without knowledge of the fact Islam is much broader and vaster than that. It is very dif- ficult to have a discussion under those circumstances. People are of- ten more interested in just pointing fingers at human rights violations in other countries, so as to cover up what rights are being breached right here in this country. Dis- crimination happens in Malta: it is a reality, and it should be discussed. You cannot discuss discrimination in Malta by pointing fingers at oth- er countries. That is an excuse to avoid the discussion... At the same time, however, 'discrimination' has a legal definition that goes beyond hate speech. In pre-Civil Rights America there was segregation, for instance: blacks and whites went to different schools, sat in different parts of the bus, etc... all enforced through legislation. Do you see anything similar in Malta? Are Muslims institutionally discriminated against here: on the workplace, at school or university, in terms of salaries, or opportunities...? I think the fact that racism and Islamophobia are still here means that they are institutionalised. As I understand it, 'institutionalised' means that there are people with- in institutions who do not have knowledge of what is going on, and therefore are not taking clear action – providing guidelines, poli- cies, and so on. That is already part of the problem. As a result, we have people aged 16, 17, who have gone through the entire education pro- cess, yet are still coming up with these mentalities. We have even had university lecturers, such as Stephen Florian, who have made Islamophobic, racist and homo- phobic remarks. These people speak on behalf of an institution. So yes, I do feel it is institutionalised in Malta. OK, but we're still on the level of expressing opinions (however controversial). What I meant was: is it harder for Muslims to find a job in Malta, for instance? Is there discrimination within the employment sector, or similar areas? When I was carrying out re- search, employment was one of the Discrimination happens in Malta: it is a reality, and it should be discussed. You cannot discuss discrimination in Malta by pointing fingers at other countries. That is an excuse to avoid the discussion... Our failure to properly integrate all members of society is holding us back, and it can only result in the realisation of people's fears. Because at the end of the day, if people are not integrated, obviously there will be more extremism, not less DISCRIMINATION EXTREMISM Redefining the national