Suha Arafat, the wife of the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, is facing the possibility of having an international arrest warrant issued against her by the Tunisian government. Without going into the merits of the case, I can't help noticing how prompt she is in trying to rope in religion to her defence. Only last week, in my post Merry Christmas, I commented that "Many on this island shuddered upon hearing the words "Islam" and "sharia", immediately fearing  that Maltese Catholicism was facing a new threat."  Ms Arafat is finely attuned to Maltese fears and sentiments so, with an Islamist party emerging victorious in recent Tunisian elections, she stated (as quoted in today's timesofmalta.com), “I have the Madonna of Malta, she’s with me. I always pray to her and I know she knows that I’m innocent and she will not let me down.”

Why exactly is Ms Arafat, a Muslim, praying to the Madonna of Malta, who, as per our Constitution, is Roman Catholic?

Click here for follow-up post: An intercession by the Madonna of Malta