By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

Italian police have arrested six Moroccan men suspected of plotting to stir up hatred against the Pope for baptizing a Muslim journalist several years ago.

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that police in the city of Brescia rounded up the men who they say had banded together and were meeting privately for the purpose of stirring up religious hatred against non-Muslims, including the Pope.

During the round-up, police found literature encouraging Muslim immigrants not to integrate themselves into Italian society and saying the pope should be punished for baptizing Magdi Allam, a popular journalist, in 2008. The Egyptian-born Allam, who had built a career in Italy writing against Islamic extremism and supporting Israel, converted to Catholicism and was baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peters in 2008.

Brescia prosecutor Fabio Salmone told the AP that there was no indication the group was planning a physical attack on the pope. “I rule that out,” he told reporters. “There wasn’t even a plan” to organize an attack, he said.

Five of the men were placed under house arrest and the sixth was taken into police custody.

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