Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2008 / 19:49 pm
George Weigel, a Catholic scholar and biographer of Pope John Paul II, in a recent interview with National Review Online addressed Pope Benedict XVI’s Easter vigil baptism of Magdi Allam, a prominent Italian journalist from a Muslim background.
Weigel also discussed the relevance of Allam’s baptism to relations between Muslim and non-Muslim countries and to debates about religious freedom in the Muslim world.
“Magdi Allam,” Weigel said, “has courageously defended the religious freedom of all while sharply criticizing those currents of thought in Islam which would deny the right of religious conversion to Muslims. Now he fights the war of ideas from a different foxhole, so to speak.”
Weigel said the most effective Muslim allies in war against jihadism will be “those Muslims who want to make an Islamic case for tolerance, civility, and pluralism.”