The sensational conversion of Magdi Cristiano Allam

It strange
how the entire world is staring at this tiny man. As if he is the new David,
fighting Goliath with a piece of paper and a pen.  Although he might look tiny on the outside,
Magdi Cristiano Allam does not lack of courage. 
“I want to belong to God”, said the deputy director of Il Corriere della Sera to his religious
mentor, father Gabriele Mangiarotti, just before his sensational conversion.  Clearly that was not Allah…

The only
problem being: Magdi Allam is one of the most authoritative person in Europe
when it comes to speak out loud against radical Islam. And, most of all, he was
a Muslim himself.  Allam is already
surrounded by big guys (his personal bodyguards assigned to him by the Italian
government on the ground that his life is constantly at risk) so, when he
arrives at a conference or in a public place, you won’t immediately notice that
he has in fact arrived. Magdi Allam is also the kind of guy you won’t notice
because he just does not like to be at the center of attention. He gave a
speech against a unintelligent anti-semite cartoon published on the leftist
newspaper Il Manifesto which represented Magdi’s friend Fiamma Nirenstein .
There were four speakers at the press conference (organized by the Magna Carta
Foundation) and Allam spoke for just about five minutes with a calm and low
voice. It was almost like he wasn’t invited for the speech. Almost like he
begged someone for letting him speak.

When Allam
told Mangiarotti that he wanted to become a catholic, the priest got worried.
Magdi is already at risk and the move would have caused a wave of treats from
the major Islamic association around the world, both moderate (according to
Allam, though, there is no such thing) and radical. One would think: “well,
Allam certainly knows that the conversion will put him even more at risk and he
might get scared”… instead Magdi’s answer to father Mangiarotti’ concerns
was: “You should worry about the Pope, not me”.

“I am not
afraid of death, I am convinced that we must go ahead. We should go on the road
of truth and liberty”, said Cristiano Allam in an interview published by the
Italian newspaper Libero .  “I don’t want to give up, neither I want to
be intimidated in anyway. I know I am right”.  

Now, his conversion
has in fact caused a wave of protests coming from the Islamic world.  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 Israel”.  Some others have said that Allam has added
more fuel on the fire of the so-called clash of civilizations . But there were
answers to this criticism: Michael Leeden wrote on his blog that , “Magdi’s
very public conversion, and his baptism by Benedict, is an act of defiance
against those who have already forced him to live the life of a recluse”. He
also told us that the “the whole point of radical Islam is to silence all other
voices”. That involves a personal choice as well.

Banafsheh
Zand-Bonazzi ,a well known Iranian political activist living in NYC, has an
articulated opinion on Allam’s conversion . She points out how Allam’s
conversion can be perceived as a loss from another point of view: “I love and
respect all those whose faiths makes them better people  – says Zand-Bonazzi – …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”.

Although
certainly the most famous, this is not Magdi’s first conversion. A previous
conversion is worth mentioning as well. Allam, in fact, did not start his
career writing against radical Islam. He started out by writing on the leftist
newspaper La Repubblica about
multiculturalism and how this value could have saved the world. He was
pro-Muslim at the beginning and not pro-Western. After 9/11, though, he changed
his mind. Completely.  So, he has been a
supporter of Islam and later decided to give up with this beliefs. Therefore,
one cannot claim that he doesn’t know about Muslims. That he hasn’t thought
about his religion and he is a ignorant. 
In fact Allam represents everything that radical Islam fights  against: the freedom to choose and the
ability to change your mind. If a terrorist will hurt Magdi, he would hurt the
freedom itself. He would hurt Magdi’s future and past at the same time, not
just a person. In this way he will show the world the true nature of radical
Islam and the terrorism, namely: the negation of liberty and freedom of choice.