The site of Muslims praying in front of the Msida Parish Church infuriated thousands of Maltese recently.

The self-styled 'Maltese patriots' marched onto Msida last weekend to contend the Muslims, arguing that since Roman Catholicism was the religion of Malta, other religions should not be allowed to hold such public. They even distributed pork to try to take a dig at the Muslims.

But the presence of a few dozen people in the same spot this afternoon wearing colanders on their head and exercising their "right" to eat spaghetti baffled passers-by even more.

A symbolic meeting was organised by the so-called Pastafarian community from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster this afternoon at the same spot to show that not all Maltese were Catholic and everyone should be allowed to practice their religion.

Some members of the Pastafarian community, made up of around 200 people, have been meeting over the past few months to discuss issues of tolerance and diversity.

However, it was the latest protest by members of the Għaqda Patrijotti Maltin and the manifestation of discrimination exposed by the media that inspired organisers Franco Farrugia and Dominic Watson to hold the meeting.

They applied for a police permit on Thursday and permission was granted within 24 hours.

However, the group failed to ask for permission to cook spaghetti in a public place, so despite going on site equipped with a gas canister and spaghetti, they had to wait on some of their peers to bring cooked spaghetti from home.