Pope Benedict's baptism of an Italian Muslim over Easter weekend was not a hostile act against Islam, the Vatican's newspaper wrote after the public conversion prompted criticism in the Muslim world. In a surprise move, the Pope baptised Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a well-known journalist and outspoken critic of radical Islamism, at an Easter Vigil service in St Peter's Basilica on Saturday evening that was broadcast around the globe.

Muslim commentators said Mr Allam's hostile writings and his headline-grabbing baptism strained relations between Muslims and the Catholic Church and cast shadows over a recently agreed dialogue between Catholicism and Islam. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, apparently reacting to this criticism, wrote a front-page editorial arguing that Benedict's gesture was an expression of religious freedom and certainly not directed against Islam. "There is no hostile intention toward such an important religion as Islam," editor-in-chief Gian Maria Vian wrote.

"For many decades now, the Catholic Church has shown its willingness to engage and dialogue with the Muslim world, despite thousands of difficulties and obstacles."

But critics of the baptism questioned why the pope chose to highlight the conversion of Mr Allam, known in Italy for his attacks on Islam. Church experts on Islam privately expressed concern that his message could strain inter-faith relations. Writing in Sunday's edition of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, of which he is a deputy director, Mr Allam said: "...the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual."

Catholic-Muslim relations nose dived in 2006 after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that implied he thought Islam was violent and irrational. Muslims around the world protested and the pope, who said he did not agree with the Byzantine emperor he had quoted, sought to make amends by visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul and praying towards Mecca with its imam.