The Baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam

For five years he has lived under guard, threatened with death. But his baptism has raised harsh criticism, against him and against Benedict XVI.

ROMA (Chiesa) - Three days earlier, in an audio message released over the internet, Osama bin Laden had accused "the pope of the Vatican" of having "a significant role" in fighting a "new crusade" against Islam.

But nothing intimidates Benedict XVI. At the Easter vigil, on Saturday, March 22, the pope baptized at the basilica of Saint Peter, together with six other men and women from four continents, a convert from Islam, Magdi Allam, 56, an Egyptian by birth, a famous writer and journalist and the vice director of the leading Italian daily, "Corriere della Sera," and the author of important books, the latest one entitled "Viva Israele [Long Live Israel]."

With his baptism - and with confirmation and communion immediately afterward - Allam took "Cristiano" as his second name. And in a letter published in his newspaper on Easter Sunday, he recounted and explained his conversion.

The news traveled immediately around the world. Comments in the Muslim media were for the most part polemical, against Allam and against Benedict XVI. Even in the ecclesiastical camp, there emerged some criticisms of the publicity given to the conversion, which in reality had remained secret up until the end.

A comment on the part of the Vatican appeared in "L'Osservatore Romano," in a note by director Giovanni Maria Vian:

"The gesture by Benedict XVI affirms religious freedom in a humble and clear way. This is also the freedom to change religion, as in 1948 was emphasized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (even if after this, unfortunately, the declaration was scaled back precisely in this regard). So anyone who without coercion asks for baptism has the right to receive it. And just as this event has not been unduly emphasized, so also there is no hostile intention toward a great religion like Islam."

By coincidence, in the same issue of the pope's newspaper, there was a long article dedicated to the Easter liturgy and to the very ancient tradition of celebrating the sacraments of Christian initiation within it, entitled "The intimate bond between baptism and martyrdom."

This is a bond that Benedict XVI emphasized on Easter Monday, when - at the midday "Regina Coeli" - he invited the faithful to pray for the bishops, priests, religious, and laity killed in 2007 while carrying out their service in missionary countries:

"In the light of the risen Christ, the annual day of prayer for missionary martyrs, which is commemorated today, takes on a particular value."

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As a Muslim, because of his vigorous criticism of "an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual," Allam has been the object of death threats in the past. For five years, he has lived under the protection of an armed guard, and lives in a secret location in the north of Rome, with his wife Valentina and their little son Davide.

As a journalist, he made a great impact with two of his articles published in 2003. In the first, Allam reproduced the sermon delivered on Friday, June 6 of that year, in the Grand Mosque of Rome by Egyptian imam Abdel-Samie Mahmoud Ibrahim Moussa. In the second, he translated from the Arabic the sermons of imams from six other Italian mosques. Almost all glorified suicide terrorism and incited hatred toward the West and toward Israel.

Following the first article, the Egyptian government summoned the imam who had delivered the sermon back to his country.

Allam also distinguished himself by his commentaries on Benedict XVI's lecture in Regensburg, which were entirely in agreement with the theses of the pope.

His criticisms are not aimed solely against Islamism. On various occasions, he has denounced "the moral surrender, the intellectual obfuscation, the ideological and practical collaboration with Islamic extremism on the part of the West."

On account of these positions, Allam has borne strong hostility not only on the part of Muslims, but also of intellectuals from Italy and Europe. In the summer of 2007, about 200 professors of various universities, including the Catholic University of Milan, signed a letter against him, accusing him of intolerance.

In the ecclesiastical camp, too, many are distrustful toward him. After his article denouncing the sermon of the imam of Rome, the president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue at the time, archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, complained that " this kind of activity runs the risk of compromising dialogue."

But Allam has repeatedly denounced another widespread fear in the Church: the one according to which in Muslim countries - where apostasy is sometimes punished with death - baptism ceases to be practiced, and in Christian countries converts from Islam are kept hidden.

With the baptism administered publicly to him by the pope at the Easter vigil, Allam hopes that these "catacombs" can be left behind.

But it will not be easy. Two striking critical reactions to his baptism from the Muslim side have come from important signatories of the letter of the 138, the letter emblematic of the dialogue between the Church of Rome and Islam: the Italian imam Yahya Pallavicini and the Libyan theologian Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan.

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The two were part of the delegation of five Muslim representatives that on March 4 and 5 reached an agreement with Vatican authorities on the next steps in this dialogue, which will include an audience with Benedict XVI.

But in criticizing the baptism of Allam, both sidestep the fundamental question of freedom of religion, which has even been placed at the center of the agenda for dialogue between the Church of Rome and the signatories of the letter of the 138.

Yayha Pallavicini has said that he is "embarrassed by the lack of sensitivity" demonstrated by those who wanted to have Allam baptized at St. Peter's, "an action carried out on the day following the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet, the Muslim Christmas, which risks generating negative messages and indicates the Vatican's political intention to assert the supremacy of the Catholic Church over all other religions."

But even harsher was the commentary of Nayed, who is the true mastermind of the letter of the 138, and its effective author.

He is critical toward Allam, but even more toward Benedict XVI, against whom he launches the accusation of wanting to reassert, through the act of baptism, the "infamous" lecture in Regensburg.

Nayed comes to the point of condemning as "totalitarian" and "quasi-Manichean" the symbolism of darkness and light developed by the pope in the homily for the Easter vigil.

Unless the Vatican distances itself from it, Nayed further states, the baptism administered by Benedict XVI will irrevocably mean that the pope subscribes to and supports Allam's "hateful discourse" against Islam.

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Chiesa is a wonderful source on all things Catholic in Europe. It is skillfully edited by Sandro Magister. SANDRO MAGISTER was born on the feast of the Guardian Angels in 1943, in the town of Busto Arsizio in the archdiocese of Milan. The following day he was baptized into the Catholic Church. His wife’s name is Anna, and he has two daughters, Sara and Marta. He lives in Rome.