I would not put too much interpretation of his motives for becoming a Christian based on a few words printed in a news article. The news media is bored with anything about faith, and about Christianity specifically. I suspect that the man was really stating that he saw in Christians a good example of equality and respect for all people. He was impressed by this. We should never underestimate the good accomplished by the witness of good Christians; nor the bad outcomes from sinful living done by supposed Christians.
From everything we see and hear about Pope Benedict XVI, I am certain that this new convert from Islam was well catechized, and fully understands the implication of conversion, the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Lord and Savior. He would have to accept the Holy Trinity, et al..
I agree with your statement. There is a great article with detailed accounts of Magdi Allam’s conversion story posted at the Asiatimes (www.atimes.com) front page article from 26 March, 2008. One quote from that article will suffice:
“The miracle of the Resurrection of Christ has reverberated through my soul, liberating if from the darkness of a tendency where hate and intorance in before the “other”, condemning it uncritically as an “enemy”, and ascending to love and respect for one’s “neighbor”, who is always and in any case a person; thus my mind has been released from the obscurantism of an idelogy which legitimizes lying and dissumulation, the violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny—permitting me to adhere to the authentic religion of truth, of life, and freedom. Upon my first Easter as a Christian I have not only discovered Jesus, but I have discovered for the first time the ture and only God, which is the God of Faith and the God of Reason”
Now, does anyone think that the secularlist left-wing media is going to quote a statement like that. Furthermore, it seems both Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Faith and Reason”, which is a philosophical encyclical, and Pope Benedict’s Regensberg lecture, a serious Theological lecture, both influenced Mr. Magdi Allam.
God bless Mr. Allam and God Bless Pope Benedict