Muslim convert criticizes cardinal, says terrorism is ‘mature fruit of Islam’

October 30, 2008

Magdi Allam, the Muslim journalist who converted to Catholicism and was baptized by Pope Benedict during the Easter Vigil, has issued an open letter to the pontiff in which he criticizes recent comments about Islam made by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Cardinal Tauran said in August that Muslims who engage in violence have ‘betrayed their faith.’

Allam, the vice editor of Italy’s leading national newspaper, replies that ‘Islamic extremism and terrorism are the mature fruit’ of ‘the sayings of the Quran and the thought and action of Mohammed.’ In his open letter, Mr. Allam asks Pope Benedict to rule definitively on whether Islam is a valid religion, saying that a papal statement on the question is ‘vital for the common good of the Catholic Church, the general interest of Christianity and of Western civilization itself.’

 

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Further information:

• Muslim convert to Catholicism tells pope Islam is not inherently good (CNS)
• Magdi Allam (Corriere della Serra)