Emm... no way, Mr Imam

Despite the flippant title, this piece is not meant to disparage Imam Mohammed el Sadi, Islam’s representative on the island, but merely to ask him to stop making statements that rub so many of us the wrong way. This he did for the umpteenth time with his

Some people may take this as some sort of defence or apology on behalf of the majority of Christians and animal lovers in Malta and Gozo. In truth, it is more of a hip reaction to the proposition of having animals killed in what is definitely a very cruel method – a “religious” rite that inflicts unnecessary suffering on animals, warm-blooded creatures with as many feelings as us, chosen by humans to be eaten by humans.

I am neither religious nor vegetarian, but I hate the idea of making animals suffer when they are killed on behalf of that same God who is credited with having created them. Yes, religion was always a source of such suffering, not only to animals but also to fellow human beings. One only has to go back a few centuries to know that both Christians and Muslims not only waged merciless wars against each other, but also killed thousands of their own. They burnt them, hanged them or beheaded them after, of course, torturing them to make sure they got admissions of guilt regarding witchcraft, godlessness, being apostates and guilty of other “sins” which, as a society today, we generally prefer to ignore and joke about.

However, animals continue to suffer for us to be able to consume them. It is not easy to forfeit one’s predilection for meat, even if some of us try to camouflage the guilt by opting mostly for either chicken or fish. I will not hide my capitulation to the occasional Irish rib eye, but with that same feeling of self-deceit, I have long given up on veal knowing what cruel methods are used to ensure the poor calves’ meat remains white, soft and tender. There again, you see it has nothing to do with religion or belief, but more a preference for meat produced in as less painful way as possible.

The Muslim halal AND Jewish kosher food, one needs to add with reference to American University Professor John Baldacchino’s prodigious contention that the general negative response was based on ignorance, brings religion bluntly into the reckoning, alas. That is why so many who followed the TVM story chose to reply to the Imam, sadly not always with the kindest of words, with one irate social media contributor even smugly suggesting El Sadi should be deported from Malta!

Others were no less resolute but markedly erudite in their reactions. Marlene Mizzi, the Maltese MEP who has rightly made animals and animal rights one of her top concerns at the European Parliament, was quick on the trigger, reacting to the Imam’s call for animals to be killed in the “unbelievably cruel” traditional halal method with three capitallettered NO! NO! NO!

Another angry retort was that of Dione Borg, a contender in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, who declared it was not only unacceptable, but he was also adamant that we should not be expected to accept traditions that inflict more unnecessary pain on animals.

Everywhere in Western Europe, the authorities of course have to continue tackling this conundrum. With animal rights high on both national and European agendas, vegetarian and vegan diets on the rise, and religious radicalism questioning even our basic liberal views, there is no easy solution. Animals have the right, where and when it is acknowledged, not to be killed in a cruel method for human ingestion. Believers of Islam, Judaism and some barmy sects have the right to stick to their beliefs but not to impose them.

Even King Solomon, who, according to the Bible, had 700 wives and 300 concubines to choose from when he needed a physical pause from his “angelassisted” building of the Temple, wouldn’t have found a way, and not simply because he happened to be Jewish. In Maltese we say “kultant trid taqta’ fil-laħam il-ħaj”, loosely translated as “sometimes you have to cut into the flesh”. Ironic, I know, but let the animals win this one.

Fresh hope or lost cause?

When you consider how many children sadly go missing and vanish from the bosoms of their families all over the world, not least in super-connected Europe, one cannot help but admire the persistence of Kate and Gerry McCann in the search for their missing daughter, Madeleine.

They understandably expressed new hope at the news of the return of abducted American teen Jayme Closs who had vanished three months before. The 13-year-old survived what was reported as “a miracle escape” from a man accused of abducting her after murdering her mum and dad in the United States. She actually managed to flee from her kidnapper and run into a nearby field where she flagged down a dog walker.

Many people applauded the county sheriff’s department and all the investigating agencies for their “exhaustive efforts to bring Jayme home”, with the McCanns taking cue to live in hope of finding Maddie, as she is known in the media, saying on their Facebook page: “May 2019 be a peaceful and positive one for us all.”

Hope is eternal and no decent parent would ever stop searching for a missing child, but there is a major difference in Maddie’s case, alas. At just three years of age, she vanished from a holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, nearly 12 years ago, while her parents dined in a nearby tapas restaurant with friends. If still alive, she would be 16 today, a fully-grown teenager with inevitably changed looks.

Is it right to persist with the search? Certainly. Is it right to continue pumping public (not personal) funds into the search? That has now become debatable. There are thousands of missing children, but only a handful seem to have been so privileged considering the long and arduous search. It is hard to describe Maddie’s case as a lost cause 12 years on, but a day will come when one, including the parents and other loved ones, has to face reality – a cruel reality.