by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(March 25, 2008) With his life now in danger, a former Muslim baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome says he will confront his fate “with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith.”
The 55 year old Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, deputy editor of the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, described the event of his conversion in a letter to the editor which was published on Easter Sunday.
“Yesterday has been the most beautiful day of my life, when I chose the most simple and explicit name. Since yesterday, my name is Magdi Christian Allam,” he wrote.
Allam said his conversion was the result of a long and deep process, but a deciding moment came during a meeting he had with Pope Benedict. Describing the Holy Father as a man “whom I have admired and defended as a Muslim for his brilliance in presenting the indissoluble link between faith and reason as the foundation of true religion,” Allam said the meeting allowed him “to see the light, by divine grace, as the healthy and ripe fruit of a long process.”
Allam and his Catholic wife and child have been living under police protection in Viterbo, Italy
since 2003 when his criticism of a Palestinian suicide bombing generated threats on his life. He has won both applause and criticism for his frequent writing about Muslim and Arab affairs. While some Muslims have issued death threats, Allam was a co-winner of Tel Aviv University’s Dan David prize in 2006 for his “ceaseless work in fostering understanding and tolerance between cultures.”
A recent book authored by Allam was entitled, “Viva Israel” or “Long Live Israel,” which he wrote after receiving death threats from Hamas.
“Having been condemned to death, I have reflected a long time on the value of life,” he said in his letter. “And I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel. Everyone has the right to exist except for the Jewish state and its inhabitants. Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life.”
Allam was not the only one displaying great courage at this year’s Easter Vigil. Pope Benedict XVI performed the high-profile baptism of Allam less than a week after Osama bin Laden accused him of playing a “large and lengthy role” in a “new Crusade” against Islam.
The Pope made no mention of bin Laden or the alleged “Crusade” during his homily, but instead spoke of the unity he has worked so hard to forge between the world’s major religions, particularly Islam.
“We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another,” he said. “Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close.”
Millions of viewers in more than 50 countries watched the Pope pour water over Allam’s head, and saw the cameras zoom in on the former Muslim as he sat in the front pew of the basilica along with six other candidates for baptism.
Allam had a message of his own to communicate to the watching world. In his letter to the editor, he issued a twofold call: first he encouraged other Muslims who have converted to Catholicism to come out publicly; and second he called on the Church to be ‘less prudent’ about converting Muslims.
According to Allam, in Italy “there are thousands of converts to Islam who peacefully live their faith. But there are also thousands of Muslim converts who are constrained to hide their new faith.”
In his letter, he finally expressed his hope that these former Muslims “from the Pope’s historic gesture and my testimony may be convinced that the time has come to come out from the shadows of the catacombs.”
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