TIME to consider some differences between Catholicism and Islam

Jeff Israely of TIME magazine reports/editorializes about the conversion of Magdi Allam:

Like Hirsan Ali, the Egyptian-born Allam was raised in a Muslim family, before emigrating as a teenager to Europe, where he eventually became famous for railing against what he sees as fundamental flaws in his native religion. The Rome-based journalist has faced repeated death threats from Islamic radicals, and travels to speaking engagements in Italy and abroad with an armed security detail. Needless to say, neither Allam nor Hirsan Ali show signs of toning down their criticism.

<snip>

Church officials may be pleased that Allam has so publicly joined the Catholic flock, but he is unlikely to become any kind of mediator in the Vatican's attempts to start a dialogue with Islam. That is because Allam is seen as almost belligerently anti-Islamic.

<snip>

This and other writings have led to widespread criticism among Muslims in Italy, who say he depicts only the worst of Islamic faith and culture. Not surprisingly, Allam has won the admiration of some of Europe's prominent conservatives and critics of Muslim immigration. He has been compared to Hirsan Ali, herself an avowed atheist who long ago renounced her faith, and now divides her time between Europe and the United States. Allam also struck up a friendship with Oriana Fallaci, the late Italian journalist and writer, who in recent years wrote anti-Muslim screeds and warned against Europe becoming "Eurabia." Fallaci, a Catholic by birth, was a non-believer through her adult life, though reportedly was exploring questions of faith as she battled terminal cancer. [emphasis added]

Let's say, just for kicks, that a journalist/writer who was raised as a Catholic or was raised in a Christian culture, began writing books saying how bad, violent, and utterly irrational is Catholicism specifically and Christianity in general. Would said writer (i.e., Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, etc.) require 24/7 security details? Would he receive constant death threats? And, if he did receive a death threat, would it be treated as a "ho hum, oh, well, that's the way things are" sort of issue by Christians? By the media? Let's say that Sam Harris became a Muslim. Do you think he would face death threats from Christians for doing so?

Some or all of the atheists mentioned above likely hear, on occasion, nasty comments and have had a confrontation here and there with a peeved Christian. It happens, and everyone knows that every group, church, or movement has its jerks and idiots. But some of these new atheists have also engaged in well-attended, well-publicized debates with Christians such as Dinesh D'Souza. How many debates do you hear about taking place between critics of Islam and Muslim scholars/apologists? In addition, Hitchens and Co. have largely received the red carpet treatment in the media. They work in freedom and enjoy financial success and publicity because of their books criticizing religion, especially Christianity.

Frankly, if being sympathetic toward the nation of Israel (that is, thinking it has a right to exist) and being critical of certain aspects of Islam are all it takes to targeted for assassination, I think I'd also tend toward being "belligerently anti-Islamic." Really now, is this so hard to comprehend?

A Catholic News Service story reports:

When Pope Benedict XVI welcomed into the Catholic Church a Muslim-born journalist often critical of Islam, it was not a sign that the pope accepts everything the journalist believes, said the Vatican spokesman.

The Italian journalist, Magdi Allam, "has the right to express his own ideas. They remain his personal opinions without in any way becoming the official expression of the positions of the pope or the Holy See," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

Father Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, made his comments March 27 in response to a statement from Aref Ali Nayed, a spokesman for the 138 Muslim scholars who initiated the Common Word dialogue project in October and who established the Catholic-Muslim Forum for dialogue with the Vatican in early March.

Father Lombardi said baptism is a recognition that the person entering the church "has freely and sincerely accepted the Christian faith in its fundamental articles" as expressed in the creed.

"Of course, believers are free to maintain their own ideas on a vast range of questions and problems on which legitimate pluralism exists among Christians," he said. "Welcoming a new believer into the church clearly does not mean espousing all that person's ideas and opinions, especially on political and social matters."

This is especially revealing:

Nayed questioned the pope's decision to baptize Allam March 22 during the globally televised Easter Vigil from St. Peter's Basilica.

"It is sad that the intimate and personal act of a religious conversion is made into a triumphalist tool for scoring points," Nayed said.

"It is sad that the particular person chosen for such a highly public gesture has a history of generating, and continues to generate, hateful discourse," he added.

He refers, of course, to Allam's criticisms of Islam. But what does he have to say about the numerous death threats against Allam? Are those "hateful"? Is there any interest on his part in condemning those threatening, hateful remarks?

Again, let's say that some wing nut, in the course of being interviewed about March Madness, suddenly started yelling, "Death to Hitchens! Death to Harris! Death in the name of Jesus!" Would Christian leaders be silent? Would they shrug? If they said or did nothing, would they get a free pass from the media? From the public? Would Hitchens and Harris be taken to task by TIME magazine for being "almost belligerently anti-Christian"? Just wondering.

Finally, Sherry Weddell has a post that asks, "Why do Muslims convert to Christianity?":

In many places, apostasy [from Islam] is tantamount to rejecting family, religion, culture, ethnicity, and nationality. Thus, many Muslim converts face persecution from family, police, or militants. Two friends were unable to fill out the questionnaire—one because he was apparently poisoned by his own family, the other because the government imprisoned him and later his tongue was cut out by a warlord so that he could no longer say the name of Jesus.

Well, who knows—those converts may have been "anti-Islamic", so who's to say they were treated unfairly? (And, yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

UPDATE: George Weigel, author of Faith, Reason And The War Against Jihadism (as well as many other books), talks about Allam's baptism over at NRO:

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s the most important message about the war we’re in coming out of Magdi Allam’s conversion from Islam to Catholicism?

GEORGE WEIGEL: The war against jihadism is, among many other things, a war in defense of religious freedom, the first of human rights. That war is, at bottom, a war of ideas — of different ideas about the human person and different ideas of human obligation. Magdi Allam 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.

Read the entire interview.

Comments

[Tim Herrmann]

If anyone hasn't read the letter he published they should. He paints a very different picture of his conversion and induction into the Church than the media does. Obviously it will show his own personal bias but I found it to be a very compelling letter that told me a lot about the current state of the Church and also Religious freedom. And also...what about the glaring hypocrisy present in the media which you touched on...if a Christian were to convert to Islam...what would happen? Death threats? Yeah right.

http://www.clonline.us/readings/magdi%20allam%20Letter.pdf

[Sleeping Beastly]

Matthew 7:16-20:

By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.

[cthemfly25]

A man was baptized; cleansed of his sins and now a brother in Christ, a member of the Catholic, Holy and Apostolic Church. We should rejoice. The reaction to this wonderous event by secular media and Islam is to be expected, including the senseless reaction of a noteworthy alleged Islamic intellectual. It is this reaction which i find disturbing. The Holy Father was correct when he observed that fundamentally there can be no true dialogue with a religion which refuses to engage in the moral discussion of revealed Truth and rejects those who become adherents to the Truth.