Magdi Allam, 55, is the deputy-editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. He was born a Muslim in Egypt, but was educated by Catholics and says he has never been a practicing Muslim.

Allam’s criticism of Palestinian suicide bombings prompted the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail in 2003, after Hamas singled him out for death.

Pope Benedict on Sunday baptised Allam and six other adults during the service in St Peter’s Basilica. The Easter vigil marks the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection. “We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another,” Benedict said. “Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close.”

Pope Benedict also called for “solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good” in Tibet, the Middle East and Africa. “How can we fail to remember certain African regions, the tormented Middle East, the Holy Land, Iraq and finally Tibet... I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace,” he said.

‘St Peter not 1st Pope’

The Apostle Peter, also known as St Peter, was not the first Pope and he never went to Rome, a new documentary has claimed.

In the documentary The Secrets of the Twelve Disciples on Channel 4, prominent academics have accused the Vatican City of misleading the world over the fate of St Peter whose journey to Rome, the Church claims, led to the spread of Christianity in the West.

“We found there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that St Peter was buried in Rome, but yet the rival theory has not got out because it challenges the Church,” said its presenter Dr Robert Beckford of the Oxford Brookes University.