Christian Provocateurs and Muslim Moderation.(Periscope; CONTROVERSIAL CONVERSIONS)(Pope Benedict's baptism of Magdi Allam)

Byline: Christopher Dickey

Have you noticed that Europe is issuing new provocations to Islam, and that Muslims are reacting so far with calm? Dutch politician Geert Wilders is promoting a film he says will prove his belief that "Islamic ideology is a retarded, dangerous one." A Danish newspaper republished one of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad last month, after the arrest of a man purported to be plotting to kill the cartoonist. Most troubling was the pope's decision to baptize the Egyptian journalist Magdi Allam in St. Peter's on the night before Easter, thus converting a famously self-hating Muslim into a self-loving Christian in the most high-profile setting possible.

Yet so far the main reaction to the pope was dismay from the 138 Muslim scholars of the new Roman Catholic-Muslim forum for dialogue, who said the "spectacle" of Allam's baptism, "with its choreography, persona and messages, provokes genuine questions about the motives ... and plans of some of the pope's advisers on Islam."

There are deeper signs of moderation, too. In Turkey, the ruling AK Party is supporting theological scholarship intended to modernize--and moderate--traditional Islamic teachings. In Lebanon, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, once known as the spiritual leader of Hizbullah's suicide bombers, now counsels the faithful to respond to Western "aggressions" through cultural and legal means. ...