VATICAN CITY, March 27: The Vatican on Thursday distanced itself from an Egyptian-born Muslim journalist who was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI at the weekend. The man is a vocal critic of Muslim extremists.

“Welcoming a new believer into the Church obviously does not mean espousing all of his ideas and positions, in particular on political or social themes,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Magdi Allam, an editorial writer and deputy editor at Italy’s leading daily, the Corriere della Sera, was one of seven adults baptised as Roman Catholics by the pope during Saturday’s Easter vigil mass at St Peter’s Basilica.

Lombardi said Allam “has the right to express his ideas, which remain personal ideas, without of course becoming in any way the official expression of the positions of the pope or the Holy See.”

He added that the pope had “taken the risk of this baptism (to) affirm the freedom of religious choice flowing from the dignity of the human person.”

Allam’s baptism drew scathing criticism from Muslim scholars led by Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, who called it “a deliberate and provocative act.”

Nayed, among the signatories of an October letter from Muslim scholars to Christian leaders urging peace and dialogue, added: “It is sad that the intimate and personal act of a religious conversion is made into a triumphalist tool for scoring points.”

Allam’s baptism “also comes at a most unfortunate time when sincere Muslims and Catholics are working very hard to mend ruptures between the two communities,” Nayed wrote in the letter dated Monday.

“It is now important for the Vatican to distance itself from Allam’s discourse,” added Nayed, who was part of a Muslim delegation to the Vatican on March 5.—AFP