by Samir Khalil Samir, sj
The Catholic baptism of the well known journalist, Magdi Allam, Egyptian and non practising Muslim, has been criticised and despised by the Islamic world. Added to this, is the embarrassment in Christian quarters, of those fearful of seeing a new crusade being launched by Benedict XVI and the Church. Instead, just as with the Regensburg address, this baptism is a message in defence of religious freedom, of evangelisation and of co-existence between religions.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Every year, during the Easter Vigil in St Peter’s basilica, the pope baptises a group of adults drawn from the various continents. On the feast of the baptism of Jesus, meanwhile, the pope traditionally baptises small children.
This year’s vigil saw 7 people baptised. One of them was a Muslim, well known in Italy and abroad: Magdi Allam, deputy editor ad personam of the leading Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
. Magdi Allam and the evolution of Egyptian society.
Magdi Allam, born in Cairo (Egypt) in 1952, comes from a Muslim family. His mother was a devout women, his father more secularised. He was educated by Italian Salesians, who run Cairo’s most famous technical school.
Arriving in Italy in ’72, he continued his studies at Rome’s La Sapienza University. Following his degree, he embarked on his career in journalism, working first for La Republica, then for Corriere della Sera.
Increasingly Magdi Allam specialised in the phenomenon of radical Islam, above all in the aftermath of September 11th 2001. His staunch opposition to this form of Islam which portrays itself as violent, radical, intolerant and invasive grew . As the violence of this Islam became blinder and more widespread, to touch the entire Islamic world, Arab and non Arab alike, his opposition intensified.
It must be remembered that this form of radical Islam was born in the early ‘70’s in Egypt; in the undercurrents of the Muslim Brotherhood – founded in Cairo in ’28 – and that it strengthened itself thanks to the ideological and financial aid of Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabita School. Egypt has radically changed in these past 30 years. And Magdi has taken note of this: all of the radio and television programmes have been islamified; Egyptian cinema, the most famous throughout the Arab world, has become puritanical and Islamic; not even the merest of negative allusions to Islam is accepted; films can no longer be made about the prophets from the Old Testament; religious television now concerns itself with all areas of life; mosques are multiplying at an amazing rate; the veil has now become all but compulsory; the niqab – which corresponds to the Afghan burka, covering the woman’s entire body except for her eyes – is increasingly becoming the norm.
In 2006 the Egyptian Minister for Culture Faruk Hosni afforded himself the luxury of alluding to the widespread use of the veil, saying that “I no longer recognise my country, it has become so similar to Saudi Arabia”: in parliament deputies linked to the Muslim Brotherhood demand his resignation based on the constitution (inspired by Islamic sharia law). Crumbling to pressure, his ruling party invited him to resign. Faruk was saved at the last moment by the First Lady, Sawsan Mubarak.
In full from Asia News 
