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Karl Schembri
The Muslim world was outraged by cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed but when folklore expert Dr Gorg Mifsud Chircop was giving a paper analysing Maltese proverbs, he never expected Arab academics to treat him like a blasphemer.
It happened six years ago at a conference held here in Malta convening folklore experts, linguists and specialists in diverse dialects, when the authoritative Maltese folklorist found himself the subject of loud protests by some 20 North African academics.
He was reading a paper about Maltese proverbs and the racist outlook towards Muslims, Turks and Arabs, as evidenced by the many maxims inherited since the times of the Great Siege.
To illustrate the point, Dr Mifsud Chircop referred to a famous one which says it all about the historical contradictions of the Catholic Maltese, who refer to God as Alla following hundreds of years of total Islamic conversion: ‘Alla hanin, Muhammed hanzir’ – (God is merciful, Mohammed is a pig).
It was at that point that academics from the Maghreb stood up in protest, with some of them even storming out of the conference room and others demanding an apology for what they deemed to be an offensive statement.
“I honestly didn’t expect them, as academics, to be so sensitive,” Dr Mifsud Chircop recounts. “It’s a pity because it means that even at an academic level, there cannot be a free and objective analysis.”
While the proverb is obviously offensive to Muslims, Dr Mifsud Chircop quoted it in earnest and he even cited a couple of other sayings which gratify Arabs – although they are not as popular as the racist ones.
“In fact I even distributed a handout with my paper to everyone before I read it,” he says. “It’s clear they planned their protest before I read the verse.”
The folklorist had to apologise and the University of Malta even decided to censor the proverb in its publication of conference papers.
“I understand the university’s omission in the context of the Arabs’ protests. I was insensitive to their sensitivities,” he says with hindsight, as thousands of Muslims now are still registering their anger at cartoons published by European newspapers. “I didn’t expect such a strong reaction from fellow academics, although one Tunisian academic did come afterwards to give me his apology. He told me to excuse them for taking it so badly.”
Far from being prejudiced, Dr Mifsud Chircop has been documenting Maltese oral narratives and folk songs and their cultural connections with Mediterranean societies. Gahan, for example, is a folk figure that apart from Malta is present in Arab countries and in Sicily.
This Week interview with Mifsud Chircop – pages 32 and 33
Links:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/02/12/t15.html
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