The Italian writer Claudio Magris comments on Magdi Allam's conversion. "Nothing is more important than the conquest of faith or its loss. All the more so when the baptism takes place in adulthood, in an age of reason, and when it is a free, thought-out and painful choice, as in the case of Magdi Allam. Baptism is an act of inner life, independent of the media and politics. Being baptised by the pope has no more value than being baptised by the humble hands of a local priest. Baptism does however carry an indirect political importance, because it changes the individual ... . The form [Magdi Allam's] baptism has taken is intended to give it immediate political significance." (25/03/2008)

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The daily wonders whether Magdi Allam's conversion deserves so much attention. "This intellectual doesn't mince his words when it comes to flaying Islam. And he is not entirely wrong when he refers to terrorist fanaticism and the lack of freedom in countries where Islam is professed. He is probably however going a bit far when he says that the 'root of evil is an inherent part of Islam, which is physiologically violent'. It is not the Muslim world as a whole that defends violence or seeks to impose its religion by force. We shouldn't however play down the courage that Magdi Allam has shown by daring to say such things that way and we also have to recognise his right to convert to Christianity. We can nonetheless ask whether it was necessary for his baptism to have been carried out by the pope himself in the Vatican." (25/03/2008)

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Martin Zöller portrays Magdi Cristiano Allam, who was born Magdi Allam in Egypt and emigrated to Italy. "Magdi Allam often caused difficulties, whether he was justifying the war in Iraq, opposing the Palestinians or criticising the alleged blindness of Italian society: 'I love Italy, but do the Italians love it?' was the title of one of his books, which are testimony to the inner conflict between his Islamic origins and his closeness to Christianity. Magdi Allam made it easy for friends and foes alike: when he criticised the building of new mosques or warned of the infiltration of Muslim communities by extremists, the reactions were a foregone conclusion: more death threats from the one side and the approval of numerous dubious centre-right parties, who have recognised in him the kind of Muslim they had only dreamed of up to then: one who is critical of Islam and assimilated." (25/03/2008)

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Eric Joszef, the daily's correspondent in Rome, analyses the article signed by Magdi Allam and published in the Corriere della Sera on March 23. "He explains the reasons for his conversion, glad that his 'soul has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimises lies and dissimulation, violent death leading to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny'. ' I had to take into account that beyond the phenomenon of world-wide Islamist extremists and terrorism, the root of evil is an inherent part of Islam, which is physiologically violent and historically antagonistic', he writes. He is delighted that the Pope accepted to baptise him publicly, thus sending out 'an explicitly revolutionary message to the Church which has hitherto been too prudent with the conversion of Muslims'." (25/03/2008)

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Islam expert Gudrun Krämer intervenes in the German debate about the building of mosques and tries to explain why the fears about these buildings are unfounded. "For lack of a better term, mosques are often referred to as houses of God and therefore as sacred buildings. This is not entirely wrong because prayer, as already mentioned, requires ritual purity and the right mind-set as well as appropriate behaviour. ... However, the notion that God is omnipresent in mosques is alien to Muslims: they are 'houses of God' only in the sense that they are a place for his worship. Primarily for his worship, that is. Because the mosque continues to serve a number of other purposes that are not holy. ... Generally, they are open all day and night to anyone who wants to spend time there, meditate, read, talk, eat or even just sleep. ... For the residents of inhospitable, cramped, stuffy, ugly and noisy conurbations, they are often the only place where one can retreat and even relax." (25/03/2008)

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"In their fierce rivalry, companies are trying to grab all the levers of power", worries the American economist Robert Reich, interviewed by Jean-Marc Vittori. He considers that a rift has appeared between capitalism and democracy following the emergence of a "supercapitalism" resulting from the reinforcement of competition in the past few years. "We were used to thinking that capitalism and democracy went hand in hand. But for thirty years, capitalism has been reinforced and democracy has been weakened. It responds less and less well to the needs of citizens. In fact capitalism is a perquisite of democracy, but democracy is not a perquisite for capitalism. China is developing a new form of capitalism, very high-handed. If we aren't careful, we could all end up in with such a system. Supercapitalism is becoming the dominant form of social organisation." (25/03/2008)

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Mehmet Ali Talat and Demetris Christofias, the Turkish and Greek leaders of the divided island of Cyprus met on Friday, March 21st. The newspaper is impressed: "Conditions for a successful conclusion have never been more favourable. For the first time since 1974 the leaders of the two communities are pro-solution and pragmatic supporters of a bizonal, bicommunal federation. ... The creation and maintenance of a positive climate is, arguably, the most important responsibility of the Talat and Christofias for the next few months. To achieve this, they need to avoid public statements that might provoke hostile reactions on either side ... . Differences that may arise during the talks by the technical committees and working groups should be resolved behind closed doors and kept off the airwaves, because the media, which had often played a destructive part in the past, and anti-solution politicians will be waiting to pounce and scupper the procedure." (23/03/2008)

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Twenty years ago, thousands of Slovaks protested with candles on the streets of Bratislava against the oppression of religious freedom and for more civil rights. This was the first Slovak uprising against the communist dictatorship. Slovakia's conservative opposition and the main ruling party, Smer, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, which otherwise tend to be hopelessly at odds with one another about Slovakia's history, are demonstrating an unusually united front on the occasion of the anniversary of the protests: Smer plans to give a commemorative declaration by the opposition its unconditional support. Monika Tódová comments: "If Smer didn't endorse the opposition's proposal, the party would discredit itself. By showing support for the opposition to the former communist regime, the party can allay suspicions that it feels a certain amount of nostalgia for the old regime, as some of the speeches delivered by its leading politicians would seem to indicate." (25/03/2008)

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The Romanian car manufacturer Dacia, which belongs to the French Renault group, has been on strike since Sunday. The company's 13,000 employees want a slice of the company's growing profits and a 65-percent pay rise. Caterina Nicolae comments: "The demand for a monthly wage of 550 lei [150 euros] is the highest to have been made in Romania in several years. Workers for Ford, Nokia and other multinationals that want to set up production facilities here in Romania will probably learn from Dacia's experiences. However, the multinationals will only stay in Romania as long as the wages don't have a negative impact on their profit margins. If salaries rise to Western levels, these companies will move to cheaper countries - a practice known as 'caravan capitalism'. That's why there's only one solution for the richer French and the poorer Romanians: 'trade unions all over the world, unite!'". (25/03/2008)

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"A new wave of Polish culture in the UK is challenging stereotypes" notes author and critic James Hopkin. "Forget the jokes about Polish plumbers ... . Since the country acceded to the EU in 2004, Polish cultural events in the UK have doubled in number each year, with 2008 looking busier than ever. ... The sixth Polish Film Festival, which opens in London on 10 April, will be the biggest yet. ... In June, the Glastonbury Festival will run a special Polish showcase, with four bands playing early on the Saturday evening. And it is rumoured that this August's Edinburgh International Festival has accepted Polish productions - usually banished to the Fringe - for the first time.Yet Pawel Potoroczyn [director of the Polish Cultural Institute]is most excited by Censorship as a Creative Force, a week-long arts season taking place at the Barbican in London from the end of this month." (25/03/2008)

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Screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz made 17 films with director Krzysztof Kieślowski, including the famous "Decalogue" series and the "Three Colours" trilogy. His latest screenplay was made into a film by young director Staszek Mucha. The art theft thriller "Nadzieja" [Hope] debuts on 28 March in Polish cinemas. Magdalena Łukaszewicz-Rigamonti comments on their cooperation: "Staszek Mucha, the 38-year-old director, has spent the past 15 years in Germany. He studied film directing in Berlin and made a few documentaries [including 'Absolut Warhola' (2001) about the Slovakian village where Andy Warhol's family comes from] ... But the cooperation with Piesiewicz entails a certain risk for film debutante Mucha. 'After all, everyone knows that Piesiewicz worked together with Kieślowski, and no matter how hard I try people will always compare my films with Kieślowski's,' the director explained." (21/03/2008)

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"The reactions of western democracies to the repression in Tibet have clearly shown the limits of their foreign policies when faced with more than just a little rogue state like Burma, but with a large political power whose economy partly determines the word's financial stability", considers the essayist Jean-Paul Marthoz. "The 'politics of values' that European countries proclaim thus seem guided by a convenient and unconvincing distribution of roles that delegates the right to indignation to institutions stripped of real power and reserves the right to denounce for the leaders of the opposition. On the one hand, the president of the European Union, German Christian-democrat Hans-Gert Pöttering, has evoked the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games if the repression continues; on the other hand we have European sports ministers ruling out any sanction. So virtue and morality go to Parliament, while reality and interests are defended by the Council and the Commission..." (25/03/2008)

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János Kóka, chairman of the small coalition partner SZDSZ in the Hungarian government, has called on politicians and government officials to boycott all events not directly linked to sport at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. Gyula Karjczár wonders how to "define sport in the narrower sense": "The question of which events are directly related to sport at the Olympics could trigger heavy debates. The LEN European Swimming Federation has just banned the Serb swimmer Milorad Cavic [from taking part in any more competitions at the European Championship in Eindhoven] because he wore a T-shirt with the words 'Kosovo is Serbia' at the prize-giving ceremony. ... Fair enough, Cavic didn't get into trouble with the host country, Holland, but things will be different in China. Let's go there and secretly spit on the carpet." (25/03/2008)

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The daily notes that Glasgow has an eight-year queue for allotments where city-dwellers can grow vegetables. "The 700 people who want to grow vegetables and flowers in Glasgow are part of a gathering momentum towards a greener lifestyle: there are about 330,000 allotment holders in the UK but another 100,000 people on waiting lists, with demand increasing. ... The government in its rather artificial and widely ridiculed attempts to establish a framework of Britishness around which all citizens of these islands can unite has overlooked the obvious. We are a nation of gardeners. ... A visit to the garden centre is as much a part of the Easter ritual as a visit to church. Allotment holders are a group that reflect the diversity of the population in age, gender, ethnicity and social class, but are bound together in their enthusiasm for growing plants." (25/03/2008)

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The newspaper concludes that all in all the social changes in Sweden since 1968 have been positive: "It's a pity that table cloths and students' caps were done away with, but it was worth it: Sweden became a country in which it's normal to address each other with the less formal 'du'. The optimism about progress of the post-war period culminated in 1968; the entire revolt was looking ahead to the future. ... Perhaps it's this faith in the future that makes 1968 seem so far away today. ... Afterwards came the oil crisis and stagflation, environmental disasters and climate crises. No one can accuse today's young people of naïve optimism about the future, even though individuals are often confident about their own future, which is somewhat paradoxical. But precisely this, the fact that today's young people have their own individual projects for their future, is the lasting contribution of the '68-ers to our society." (25/03/2008)

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