You know that the world is living on the edge of its chair religiously when the conversion of a Muslim to Christianity makes headlines. Of course, the way it was done was designed to create headlines, but still…should this really be international news?
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(NOTE: This weblog creates, for us all, a chance to meet at the intersection of Life and the New Spirituality. It is written by the author of Conversations with God, the worldwide best-selling series of books. The “New Spirituality” is defined by the author as “a new way to experience and express our natural impulse toward the Divine without making others wrong for the way in which they are doing it.” The author’s latest book is Happier Than God, published in February by Emnin Books and distributed by Hampton Roads.)

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The Associated Press reported yesterday that “A prominent Italian Muslim,” Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, described by the AP as “an iconoclastic writer who has condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel,” has converted to Catholicism.
The conversion would hardly have been noticed had it not been commemorated with a baptism by the Pope at yesterday’s annual Vatican Easter Service.
“As a choir sang Saturday night, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Allam’s head and said a brief prayer in Latin,” the AP report said.
I’m not sure why both the Pope and this well known Italian writer chose to place this decision before Muslims worldwide in this way. Mr. Allam has already angered Muslims with his writing in books and newspaper columns
In the past he has criticized Palestinian suicide bombings—a stance that brought him death threats from Hamas which, he said, in turn inspired him to write a book titled Long Live Israel.
Allam in the past has described himself as a non-observant Muslim, and has a Roman Catholic wife, with whom he has a young son. He has two adult children from a previous relationship.

One spokesperson for Italy’s observant Muslim community, Yahya Pallavicini, was reported by the Associated Press yesterday as saying that he “respected Allam’s choice, but said he was ‘perplexed’ by the symbolic and high-profile way in which he chose to convert.”
The AP story, in turn, quoted a report from the ANSA news agency in which Mr. Pallavicini was quoted: “If Allam truly was compelled by a strong spiritual inspiration, perhaps it would have been better to do it delicately.”
Sitting here on the sidelines, I wonder if Mr. Pallavicini might have been right. What could have been the purpose of this oh-so-public display?
But, I think, of even more interest is the question: Why should it have attracted so much attention one way or the other? Who cares if the Pope baptizes a non-practicing Musllim? Or a non-practicing Jew? Or a non-practicing Hindu, or Buddhist, or member of the Ba’ha’ii faith, for that matter? Why should it make headlines across the world?
The answer is that right now the entire global community is walking on eggshells around this issue of religion. No one wants to offend anyone else—least of all, radical fundamentalist Muslims, who have demonstrated a tendency to burn down buildings and wreak havoc around the world when they feel insulted.
The government in The Netherlands is now under fire for allowing a movie producer to release a controversial film produced by a Dutch politician. Muslims say that it reflects insulting views about the Holy Qu’ran.
Fox News has reported that Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission in Iran, “promised widespread protests and a review of Iran’s relationship with the Netherlands if Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders’ work is shown.”
The Fox News report quoted, in turn, a report from IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, in which Boroujerdi is quoted as saying, “If Holland will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with it. In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcasted it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam.”
In the Fox News report Wilders calls his 10-minute film “a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization, ” and said it could air as early as this week on Dutch television.
Oh boy, here we go again. Why can’t we just find a way to get along? What is making us do all these things? And why must some of us become so personally and deeply insulted over such matters? Can we not live and let live?
More on this in the days ahead.