The Baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam
The
Vigil of Easter,
At
the Easter vigil on
Allam’s early years
Allam
was born in
Allam praised Islam
Allam started his journalistic career at the communist newspaper Il Manifesto. For the longest time he
maintained the position that Islam was perfectly
compatible with Western
civilization and values. In a meeting with high school students, broadcast
on Italian public television RAI,
he declared:
Islam itself is not a menace, it is not
synomymous with conservatism. As a religion it
is not incompatible with progress
and freedom; absolutely not! Islam is a faith which, in a moderate
interpretation, is absolutely compatible with the values shared by the Italian
civil society and the Italian
Constitution.
Furthermore, Allam scorned the idea that Muslims were somehow
"invading"
The largest majority of Muslims are
moderate, and many of them are secular. According to the numbers provided by
the Muslim organizations in
Allam berates Islam
With time Allam changed his views radically. The
change began with the apocalyptic event of 9/11, 2001, when Islamic terrorists in
the name of Allah flew two 747s as weapons of mass destruction into the
In
2003, Allam joined the more
conservative, Milan-based Corriere della Sera,
one of
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
Allam defends Pope Benedict
In the year 2000
Pope John Paul II apologized to Muslims for the violence committed against them
in the name of Christianity. With Pope Benedict, however, the atmosphere has
changed. On the day of his installation, he welcomed fellow Catholics, other
Christians and Jews but not Muslims. Two months later when asked whether he considered
Islam a religion of peace, he said, "Certainly there are elements that
favor peace. It also has other elements." Some believe that with Benedict the era of appeasement under Pope
John Paul is over, and that the era of a subtle, discreet, yet firm confrontation
with Islam has begun.
Perhaps it began in earnest on Sept. 12, 2006, when Benedict gave a lecture
in Regensburg University in Germany, which dealt at length with the crisis of
faith among Christians and only momentarily with a remark about Islam and its relationship with violence. In that
momentary remark the pope quoted from a medieval text recounting a conversation
between a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor and a Persian
scholar. Benedict’s quote of the emperor’s words, which caused a tumultuous
uproar in the Muslim world, is as follows:
Show
me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only
evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he
preached.
Some experts
believe Benedict’s quote was not a misspeak but rather that it intended to deal more squarely with the Muslim
world. Some believe the pope increasingly feels that confrontation with extreme
Islamists is a critical moment in history demanding the
The Pope’s momentary
quote caused the Muslim world to rise up in arms.
Allam says two experiences accelerated his path
to conversion. The first was when he
found himself escorted under armed guard because of threats from Islamic
extremists. That forced him to reflect on
Islam as a religion. The second experience was his opportunity to encounter
ordinary Catholics — and one extraordinary Catholic -- Pope Benedict himself. Allam
said, “I am proud to have been one of the few Muslims in Italy working for a
national newspaper which stood firm in defending the Pope after his discourse
in Regensburg on Sept. 12, 2006. I did not only defend him in the name of
freedom of expression, I also defended the content of what he said, believing
that it corresponded to the truth on a historical and scientific level.”
Academia & even a churchly camp berate Allam
On account of his
positions, Allam has borne strong hostility not only on the part of Muslims,
but also of intellectuals from
Allam, in turn, berates the churchly camp. He reacted to a speech by the Archbishop
of Cantebury, Rowan Williams, who raised the suggestion
that Muslims in
Despite his earlier writings about the importance of inter-faith dialogue,
Allam has refused to endorse the famous A
Common Word Between Us and You - a 29-page public letter sent in
October 2007 from 138 Muslim leaders from 43 countries to Pope Benedict XVI and
other Christian leaders urging peace and dialogue.
Allam has also repeatedly criticized the fear of the church in Muslim countries
to baptize (where apostasy is sometimes punished with death) and the practice
of the church in Christian countries to keep converts from Islam secret. With
the baptism administered publicly to him by the Pope at the Easter vigil in St.
Peter’s Basilica in conspectu omnium,
Allam hopes that the catacomb days can be left behind.
The baptism – an in-your- face display?
With
his baptism – and with confirmation and communion immediately afterward – Allam
took "Cristiano" as his second name. The news traveled immediately
around the world. The Muslim media was angry at Allam for his traitorous
conversion from Islam to Christianity, and equally angry at Pope Benedict for his
triumphalistic (in your face) baptism of Allam in the great Basilica of St.
Peter and at a peak moment in the church’s liturgical year – the Vigil of
Easter. The international daily
newspaper Al Quds al Arabi
wrote: "The pope provokes the indignation of Muslims by baptizing an Egyptian
journalist who attacks Islam and defends
Even some in the churchly
camp joined the rumble, maintaining that
the baptism could have been done less spectacularly, sub secreto even, by some lay deacon in some subterraneous crypt,
with which
The baptism –
a deep loss!
Banafsheh
Zand-Bonazzi, a well known Iranian political activist living in
I love and respect all those whose
faiths makes them better people, who are principled, righteous, and truly
tolerant, just like Magdi, who is one of the sweetest and almost saintly people
I know. But I feel a loss for us secular and liberal Muslims because his voice,
fighting from within Islam, has a kind of intense impact: first, in terms of
his stance toward the diabolical Islamo-imperialists; then, in terms of those
who remain Muslim and are liberal and dare not speak out for fear of reprisal
from the diabolical Islamists; and finally, for those westerners (non-Muslims)
who absolutely refuse to believe that Islamo-imperialists are the biggest
threat to modernity and liberal life . . . So, of course,
speaking from within the faith in order to have an impact—and I'm glad that he
stayed till the tender age of 56, but still—his voice has been a darn valuable
one, and that's what makes it a loss for us liberal Muslims around the world
who need pioneering voices such as Magdi's.
The baptism -- a risky
undertaking
Allam’s
announcement to Fr. Gabriele Mangiarotti, that he wanted to become a Catholic
immediately worried the priest. After all, Magdi was already at risk from
Islamic extremists, and the Italian government has had to assign bodyguards to
protect him. His baptism would only greatly increase the risk. It would provoke
a wave of protests and threats from major Islamic associations around the
world, both moderate (according to Allam, though, there is no such thing) and
radical. But Allam, who certainly knew that his conversion would put him at
even greater risk, said to Mangiarotti, "Don’t worry about me. Worry about
the Pope."
When white smoke
appeared from an unpretentious
Italian
born Sandro Magister, a theologian and journalist, writes,
What I think people are
starting to realize when it comes to His Holiness is that he is, indeed, “old
school,” but he is “old school” in that
he is not afraid, and he is not afraid because he believes! Sure, everyone
assumes that the pope is probably going to believe in God and all that, but I
think that Benedict is willing to seriously engage Islam and risk all the
consequences precisely because he believes in two things: in the end the Church
will prevail, and. Martyrdom is not only noble and holy, but it is also not
obsolete.
Epilogue
The baptism according to Allam
On the day after his baptism, in a letter sent to the director of
the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Paolo Mieli, Magdi
Cristiano Allam tells the story of the interior journey that brought him to
choose conversion to Catholicism.
Dear Director,
That which I am about to relate to you concerns my choice of
religious faith and personal life in which I do not wish to involve in any way
the Corriere della Sera, which it has
been an honor to be a part of as deputy director ad personam since 2003. I write you thus as protagonist of the
event, as private citizen.
Yesterday evening I converted to the Christian Catholic religion,
renouncing my previous Islamic faith. Thus, I finally saw the light, by divine
grace -- the healthy fruit of a long, matured gestation, lived in suffering and
joy, together with intimate reflection and conscious and manifest expression. I
am especially grateful to his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who imparted the
sacraments of Christian initiation to me, baptism, confirmation and Eucharist,
in the Basilica of St. Peter’s during the course of the solemn celebration of
the Easter Vigil. And I took the simplest and most explicit Christian name:
“Cristiano.” Since yesterday evening therefore my name is Magdi Crisitano Allam.
For me it is the most beautiful day of my life. To acquire the
gift of the Christian faith during the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection
by the hand of the Holy Father is, for a believer, an incomparable and
inestimable privilege. At almost 56 […], it is a historical, exceptional and unforgettable
event, which marks a radical and definitive turn with respect to the past. The
miracle of Christ’s resurrection reverberated through my soul, liberating it
from the darkness in which the preaching of hatred and intolerance in the face
of the “different,” uncritically condemned as “enemy,” were privileged over
love and respect of “neighbor,” who is always, as in every case, “person”;
thus, as my mind was freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimates
lies and deception, violent death that leads to murder and suicide, the blind
submission to tyranny, I was able to adhere to the authentic religion of truth,
of life and of freedom.
On my first Easter as a
Christian I not only discovered Jesus, I discovered for the first time the face
of the true and only God, who is the God of faith and reason. My conversion to
Catholicism is the touching down of a gradual and profound interior meditation
from which I could not pull myself away, given that for five years I have been
confined to a life under guard, with permanent surveillance at home and a
police escort for my every movement, because of death threats and death
sentences from Islamic extremists and terrorists, both those in and outside of
Italy.
I had to ask myself about the
attitude of those who publicly declared fatwas, Islamic juridical verdicts,
against me -- I who was a Muslim -- as an “enemy of Islam,” “hypocrite because
he is a Coptic Christian who pretends to be a Muslim to do damage to Islam,”
“liar and vilifier of Islam,” legitimating my death sentence in this way. I
asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly
called for a “moderate Islam,” assuming the responsibility of exposing
themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism,
ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the
Quran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of
Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root
of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and
historically conflictive. [Underlining mine]
At the same time providence
brought me to meet practicing Catholics of good will who, in virtue of their
witness and friendship, gradually became a point of reference in regard to the
certainty of truth and the solidity of values. To begin with, among so many
friends from Communion and Liberation,
I will mention Father Juliŕn Carrňn; and then there were simple religious such
as Father Gabriele Mangiarotti, Sister Maria Gloria Riva, Father Carlo Maurizi
and Father Yohannis Lahzi Gaid; there was rediscovery of the Salesians thanks
to Father Angelo Tengattini and Father Maurizio Verlezza, which culminated in a
renewed friendship with major rector Father Pascual Chavez Villanueva; there
was the embrace of top prelates of great humanity like Cardinal Tarcisio
Bertone, Monsignor Luigi Negri, Giancarlo Vecerrica, Gino Romanazzi and, above
all, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, who personally accompanied me in the journey of
spiritual acceptance of the Christian faith.
But undoubtedly the most
extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert was that with
Pope Benedict XVI, whom I admired and defended as a Muslim for his mastery in
setting down the indissoluble link between faith and reason as a basis for
authentic religion and human civilization, and to whom I fully adhere as a
Christian to inspire me with new light in the fulfillment of the mission God
has reserved for me.
Mine was a journey that began
when at four years old, my mother Safeya -- a believing and practicing Muslim
-- in the first in the series of “fortuitous events” that would prove to be not
at all the product of chance but rather an integral part of a divine destiny to
which all of us have been assigned -- entrusted me to the loving care of Sister
Lavinia of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, convinced of the goodness of the
education that would be imparted by the Catholic and Italian religious, who had
come to Cairo, the city of my birth, to witness to their Christian faith
through a work aimed at the common good. I thus began an experience of life in
boarding school, followed by the Salesians of the Institute of Don Bosco in
junior high and high school, which transmitted to me not only the science of
knowledge but above all the awareness of values.
It is thanks to members of
Catholic religious orders that I acquired a profoundly and essentially an
ethical conception of life, in which the person created in the image and
likeness of God is called to undertake a mission that inserts itself in the
framework of a universal and eternal design directed toward the interior
resurrection of individuals on this earth and the whole of humanity on the day
of judgment, which is founded on faith in God and the primacy of values, which
is based on the sense of individual responsibility and on the sense of duty
toward the collective. It is in virtue of a Christian education and of the
sharing of the experience of life with Catholic religious that I cultivated a
profound faith in the transcendent dimension and also sought the certainty of
truth in absolute and universal values.
There was a time when my
mother’s loving presence and religious zeal brought me closer to Islam, which I
occasionally practiced at a cultural level and in which I believed at a
spiritual level according to an interpretation that at the time -- it was the
1970s -- summarily corresponded to a faith respectful of persons and tolerant
toward the neighbor, in a context -- that of the Nasser regime -- in which the
secular principle of the separation of the religious sphere and the secular
sphere prevailed.
My father Muhammad was
completely secular and agreed with the opinion of the majority of Egyptians who
took the West as a model in regard to individual freedom, social customs and
cultural and artistic fashions, even if the political totalitarianism of Nasser
and the bellicose ideology of Pan-Arabism that aimed at the physical
elimination of Israel unfortunately led to disaster for Egypt and opened the
way to the resumption of Pan-Islamism, to the ascent of Islamic extremists to
power and the explosion of globalized Islamic terrorism.
The long years at school allowed
me to know Catholicism well and up close and the women and men who dedicated
their life to serve God in the womb of the Church. Already then I read the
Bible and the Gospels and I was especially fascinated by the human and divine
figure of Jesus. I had a way to attend Holy Mass and it also happened, only
once, that I went to the altar to receive communion. It was a gesture that
evidently signaled my attraction to Christianity and my desire to feel a part
of the Catholic religious community.
Then, on my arrival in
Dear Director, you asked me
whether I fear for my life, in the awareness that conversion to Christianity
will certainly procure for me yet another, and much more grave, death sentence
for apostasy. You are perfectly right. I know what I am headed for but I face
my destiny with my head held high, standing upright and with the interior
solidity of one who has the certainty of his faith. And I will be more so after
the courageous and historical gesture of the Pope, who, as soon has he knew of
my desire, immediately agreed to personally impart the Christian sacraments of
initiation to me. His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message
to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims,
abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet
about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear. The fear of
not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to
death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic
countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must
overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims.
For my part, I say that it is
time to put an end to the abuse and the violence of Muslims who do not respect
the freedom of religious choice. In
Dear friends, let us go forward
on the way of truth, of life and of freedom with my best wishes for every
success and good thing.
Magdi Cristiano Allam