Why Do I Convert From Islam To Catholicism

[Menydh]

Why Do I Convert From Islam To Catholicism

by Magdi Cristiano Allam


Dear Reader: What I'm going to relate is a decision of personal faith and life which, in no way, does it pretend to imply the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera of which I am honoured to be the vice-director ad personam since 2003.

I write this as the protagonist of a personal life experience and as a private citizen. On Sunday night I converted to Catholicism, renouncing to my old Islamic faith.

In this way and through the divine grace, the healthy and mature fruit of a long gestation, which has been lived amidst the suffering and happiness, in between a deep and intimate reflexion and the conscious and manifest exteriorization, finally saw the light.

I am especially indebted to His Sanctity, Pope Benedict XVI, who gave me the sacraments of the Christian initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, at the Basilica of Saint Peter, during the solemn celebration of the Easter Vigil. And I took the simplest and more explicit Christian name: "Cristiano".

Therefore, since last Sunday my name is Magdi Cristiano Allam. Sunday was for me the most beautiful day in my life. Acquiring the gift of the Christian faith during the celebration of the Resurrection of The Christ from the hand of the Holy Father is, for a believer, an unparalleled priviledge and an invaluable treasury.

At my near 56 years of age, it is an exceptional and unforgetable historical event in my personal life, which it marks a radical point of inflexion and a definite one with respect to the past.

The miracle of the Resurrection of Christ has been reflected in my soul, freeing it from the darkness of a preaching where hate and intollerance towards those "different", who are uncritically condemned as the "enemy", prime over love and respect to the "fellow man", who is always and in any circumstance a "person".

At the same time, my mind has been freed of the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimates submission and tiranny, allowing me to adhere to the real religion of Truth, of Life and of Freedom. During my first Easter as a Christian, I have not only discovered Jesus but I have also discovered, for the first time, the real and only God, who is the God of Faith and Reason.


This letter was published on the Italian newspaper "Il Corriere della Sera", under the title La Mia Scelta, on March 23, 2008. The text in here is a translation into English from a summarized translation published in the Spanish newspaper "El Mundo".

[source: El Mundo]
[source: Il Corriere della Sera]

[Menydh]

Harsh Critiques against the Conversion of Allam

The Muslim community in Italy complains in particular of the media coverage of the ceremony

Il Corriere della Sera
March 24, 2008


The Arab media has given wide coverage to the conversion to Christianism of the journalist of Egyptian origins, Magdi Allam, celebrated on Sunday in The Vatican City. The Arab media is being critical against Pope Benedict XVI for having celebrated in persona the baptism of the journalist. The websites of the newspapers are unanimous in condemning the choice of the journalist, who has been defined as an "apostate" and has been accused of having "thrown himself in the arms of the Occident for economic and personal interests". The frontpage of the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Quds al Arabi reads: "Pope Benedict XVI provokes the anger of Muslims for having baptised a former Muslim who supports Israel and who is noticeable for his dislike of Islam."

Critiques to the media coverage

The media coverage of the ceremony of the baptism is another reason of critique of the Islamic community in Italy, according to the same daily paper. The TV channel al Arabiya has highlighted how the Holy Father wanted "to celebrate in prima persona" the sacrament in the Basilica of Saint Peter, and that the ceremony has been "broadcasted in direct by the State television". Al Jazira, the other big satellite Arab TV, has chosen to ignore the conversion of the vice-director of Il Corriere and it doesn't mention the news in its website nor in its TV newsroom editions. The pan-Arabist digital newspaper Elaph makes a harsh comment: "A transformer who has moved from Islam to Zionism, and from there to Catholicism."

A provocation

The Islamic chorus of condemnations could not miss the appointment. Hundreds of users of the online editions of the Arab journals speak of an "open provocation". They accuse the vice-director of Il Corriere of being hostile to Islam, but above all of "having thrown himself into the arms of the Zionists", with his book Viva Israele which would have rendered him "money and prizes" from the enemies of Islam. The website alMuslim defines the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera as the "representative of the Italian Right". For the journal Arab News, the 'neo-Christian' had "fallen in love of a Jewish tourist in 1972, when he was 15 years old, and he was detained by the Egyptian authorities who accused him of spying for Israel."


[source]

[Marcus Marulus]

I just wonder, on which grounds was he chosen by the Vatican to be baptized by Pope in person? It is a great honour to be baptized by Pope in person, I guess. What merits does this man have as to deserve this? Why wasn't he baptized by his local parish priest?

[Menydh]

I'm not sure if you are asking those questions because you really don't know the answer.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I'm not sure if you are asking those questions because you really don't know the answer.

I am just guessing the answer...he has no real merits, but has "merits" for some circles, which induced Vatican to grant him personal baptism by the Pope.

[Marcus Marulus]

I mean, lest I be misunderstood: I do not really care a bit about the "reactions" from the Muslim world to this move of the Pope. It is none of their business. Different Al-Jazirahs would find other reasons to trash Pope, even if this event did not take place. Who cares?

I am speaking from a strictly Christian point of view. Magdi Allam is an Egyptian journalist, of very dubious personal morals, a war-mongering pro-Zionist writer of (mostly) rubbish articles, one who promotes neo-con view of the current world affairs, is seeking to confound Christendom and Christianity with the "values" of the glorious modern "West", led by America and having Israel as its Middle Eastern outpost. He criticises (radical) Islam, but is not in favour of stopping immigration. Some Italians I spoke to (and they are no leftists) think that he is a parasite, living off a very generous wage as a reward for his "politically correct" writings (yes, this is one variety of political correctness as well). There are millions and millions of adult converts in the world who would deserve this kind of honour more that this Egyptian parasitical immigrant to a foreign country.

[Kernunnos]

Well, he makes 22.000 and something euros a month impersonating the role model of the good integrated moslem born mulatto who loves so much Italy and its culture.

He plays it in the major italian freemasonic progressive newspaper, the Corriere, and also he stars in numerous conferences, talk shows etcetera.

I would say that he is an admirable actor ... last interpretation, with the intervention of the pope himself, was really moving.