Rome, Italy, Jun 19, 2008 / 00:09 am
Magdi Allam, the Christian convert from Islam who was baptized by Pope Benedict XVI at an Easter service in April, has reacted to Islamist death threats posted on a web site said to be close to al-Qaeda. He has expressed particular concern that the writers of the threatening messages may be Italian.
Allam, an Egyptian-born writer and deputy editor of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, has been a controversial figure in Italy for his regular critiques of Islam. In fact, in his book “Long Live Israel,” Allam wrote “the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual.”
His conversion to Catholicism prompted angry responses from Muslim clerics and academics in Italy and the Middle East.
Recent threats on a web site targeted both Allam and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. “They are two dead men walking… just like Falcone…” one threat said, comparing both men to an anti-Mafia judge who was assassinated in a 1992 bombing.