A CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARD: WHY MALTA MUST BAN SHARIA LAW NOW
By Young Voice
Our island has long prided itself on its Catholic heritage, its commitment to European values and a single, secular legal system that treats every citizen equally. Yet the steady rise in irregular migration across the central Mediterranean has brought a measurable increase in Malta’s Muslim population. Official figures and parliamentary debates already reflect growing numbers of mosques, Islamic cultural centres and requests for religious accommodations in schools and workplaces. With Malta’s Muslim population at around 17,454 according to the 2021 census, it is both timely and wise to enshrine an explicit prohibition on Sharia law in our Constitution before such influence deepens further.
Sharia is not merely personal piety. In its classical and many contemporary interpretations it constitutes a comprehensive legal code governing inheritance, marriage, divorce, criminal penalties and apostasy. Elements of that code (e.g., unequal evidentiary weight given to women’s testimony, the concept of dhimmitude for non-Muslims, or corporal punishments for blasphemy and leaving the faith) are irreconcilable with the Maltese Constitution’s guarantees of gender equality, freedom of conscience and the absolute supremacy of civil law. We have already witnessed, in Britain, Germany and Belgium, how informal Sharia councils can create parallel jurisdictions that leave Muslim women and children vulnerable and erode public confidence in the courts. Malta, with its unitary legal tradition rooted in Roman, Napoleonic and British common-law principles, cannot afford to import such fragmentation.
The moment to act is now, precisely because the demographic shift is still at an early stage. Muslim residents currently form a small but visibly expanding minority. Their political voice remains modest; integration policies and public opinion still favour the maintenance of a single legal order. Once that minority grows larger and more organized, as projected by current migration trends and higher birth rates, any attempt to pass a constitutional ban could be portrayed as discriminatory, triggering the very polarisation we seek to avoid. Constitutional amendments require broad consensus; they are far easier to achieve before sectional interests become entrenched.
Enshrining the ban would not infringe religious freedom. Muslims, like Catholics, Jews or Hindus, would remain free to practise their faith privately and to follow its moral teachings. What it would forbid is the application of any religious code that overrides Maltese statute or creates exemptions from it. This is not Islamophobia; it is the logical defence of the secular republic enshrined in Article 1 of our Constitution and reinforced by our EU obligations.
Parliament should therefore place the issue on the national agenda without delay. A clear constitutional clause stating that “no Sharia law shall form part of the law of Malta or be applied by any court or tribunal” would send an unambiguous message: Malta welcomes newcomers who embrace our values but will not compromise the unity and equality that define us. Acting today protects tomorrow’s Malta, cohesive and true to its European soul.