Hindus have urged Malta to treat all religions and denominations equally in front of the law.

Malta Criminal Code reportedly makes one liable to imprisonment up to six months for publicly vilifying “Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion”, while committing such act against “any cult tolerated by law” makes one liable to imprisonment only up to three months.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it seemed to imply that except Roman Catholic, other religions and denominations including Hinduism were just one of the cults.

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that it was perturbing to note that a country of European Union, which prided itself for its human rights initiatives, apparently treated crimes against religious sentiment of “other” religions/denominations as less serious than against majority religion and described religions/denominations other than majority religion as cults..

Venice Commission of Council of Europe in a report concluded that “offence of blasphemy should be abolished”. It states core values of effective democracy as: pluralism, tolerance, respect for human rights and non-discrimination. It points to education leading to better understanding of the convictions of others and to tolerance.

Maltese islands were first settled reportedly in 5,200 BCE. Few European countries have such concentrated architecture, history, and beaches in so small an area as Malta. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal. -Sampurn Media