Equality Junior Minister Wears Hijab At Multi-Religious Mosque Ceremony For Lassana Cisse
Reforms Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg donned a hijab this morning as she attended a multi-religious prayer ceremony at the Paola mosque in honour of murdered Ivorian migrant Lassana Cisse.
Buttigieg joined Maltese people and members of the Ivorian community to listen to the memorial, which was addressed by both Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Imam Mohammed El Sadi.
The Ivory Coast is itself a multi-religious society, where Christianity and Islam are both widely practiced.
“It was my first time wearing it as I never had another occasion before,” Buttigieg told Lovin Malta. “I felt it was respectful to do so since I was in a mosque for a service.”
Maltese human rights activist Omar Rababah praised Buttigieg for her symbolic gesture which displayed cultural and religious sensitivity.
“In a society filled with intolerance, a gesture like that was very brave,” Rababah said. “This isn’t an issue of religion but an issue of a politician setting an example by giving some visibility and representation to people who are often forgotten by society.”
At the ceremony, Archbishop Scicluna thanked Imam El Sadi for leading a Muslim prayer for Cisse, crying out over the tragedy of a man’s life being “shattered by bullets in an insane attitude”.
For his part, the Imam called racism a “mental illness”.
Lassana Cisse
Cisse was killed in April 2019 while walking home in Ħal Far, in what is believed to have been a racially motivated murder.
Two off-duty soldiers – Francesco Fenech and Lorin Scicluna – were arrested a month later and charged with Cisse’s murder, although the trial against them has yet to begin three years down the line.
Find out more about Lassana Cisse in Lovin Malta’s documentary below:
Does Malta need more multi-religious ceremonies?
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