Papal Conversions and Mixed Messages

Pope Benedict’s Easter message was to be one calling for the end of injustice worldwide, but instead became of a publicity stunt as he praised the continuing conversions to Christianity after publicly baptizing a “Prominent Muslim”. During the Eatser vigil on Saturday night the Pope baptized the Egyptian born Magdi Allam, often seen as Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator. An outspoken critic of “Islamic fanaticism” Mr. Allam frequently wrote articles which condemned Islam or aspects of Islam and in doing so gained much notoriety becoming one of the most popular, controversial journalists in Italy.

The conversion of Magdi Allam was kept secret until just an hour before the Saturday night vigil and was again reaffirmed in the words of the Pope spoke of the resurrection of Christ and its effect, "thousands and thousands of people converted to the Christian faith" and he added: "This is a miracle that still renews itself today". With the seemingly open and highly publicized conversion of Mr. Allam one would assume it was a clear message to the world of Christianity’s supremacy over Islam, yet the Vatican began to backtrack and contradict this message as Cardinal Giovanni Re was quoted as saying "Conversion is a private matter, a personal thing and we hope that the baptism will not be interpreted negatively by Islam,"

If indeed it is a private matter why then would an individual be baptized by the Pope on the eve of his Easter Mass? Why not at his local church? Why did the Vatican give this conversion such a high profile status? The answer seems to be that the Papal propaganda machine saw the benefit of publicizing the conversion in an attempt to extol the virtues of Catholicism as opposed to Islam. If this was indeed the desired attempt why would they then talk of the privacy of conversion and faith?
The simple fact is that they are misleading those who know nothing about Islam. Islam is not something you are born into alone. Islam is a way of life that one has to openly accept, and if it is not accepted then you are not truly a Muslim.

Magdi “Christian” Allam (Christian is the name accepted during his baptism) is not, and indeed was not a Muslim. So the highly publicized conversion of a “prominent Muslim” was in fact nothing more then cheap theatrics meant to dazzle and amaze the Catholic faithful, nothing more then illusions based on lies.

In the end we are dealing with a man who attended catholic school while growing up in Egypt, is married to a Catholic, admitted to never praying five times a day, and never fasted during the Holy month of Ramadan. What kind of Muslim is this one might ask? He is the kind of Muslim who has been called a Muslim-Zionist by Israeli’s Haaretz newspaper, was given the Mass Media Award by the American Jewish Committee, lashed out at what he calls "the Islamization of society.", objects to allowing Muslims to have their own courts in matters of family law, and warns that assimilation and acceptance of Muslims in Europe is a process that will "unbalance the country and overthrow constitutional order." As well as supporting a ban on building Mosques.

Allam is free to choose whatever religion he wants as it is obvious he never accepted Islam, it is abundantly clear he was in fact anti-Islam, however to then try and disguise this fact and promote his conversion on a stage as grand as the Vatican is nothing more then mere parlor tricks meant to deceive and mislead the masses. In self-aggrandizing fashion the Vatican has started down the path of disgrace; only through honesty and sincerity can we seek mutual understanding.