Challenge: Independent, Greek Orthodox Sicily

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to have an independent Greek Orthodox Sicily by the present day with a PoD of no earlier than 965. The lingua franca doesn't have to be Greek although you'll receive bonus points if it is. In addition, Sicily must have almost no cultural ties to the Italian peninsula, so that nobody (except crackpot Italian nationalists) regards the island as being a part of Italy.
 
POD: Basil II decides to expand into most of Italy (which I think Midgard or someone else said he planned to do in OTL), which includes consolidating Italy. The Normans don't invade Italy, instead they are redirected to Spain (Roger of Tosny is more successful in Catalonia, and the Normans follow him there). So the Byzantines remain in control of Sicily. For simplicity, the Seljuks invade and conquer Anatolia, and eventually Constantinople falls. the Byzantines retreat to Sicily and southern Italy, and form a state that survives longer. Eventually it falls to foreign invasion, but the Greek Orthodox population remains their until today.
 
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