EGYPTIAN ITALIAN JOURNO IN TROUBLE OVER NEW BOOK PRAISING ISRAEL

New "Salman Rushdie" in Italy? (Al-Bawaba-Jordan)
Magdi Allam, 55, an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist and deputy chief editor of Italy's most influential newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, is again at the center of the storm following his seventh book, Viva Israele (Long Live Israel). The book is the tale of his life under the regime of Egyptian President Nasser. According to Allam, Nasser is responsible for having turned Egypt - and the rest of the Arab world - into the cradle of the "ideology of death." Allam claims Nasser brought about an aggressive pan-Arabic dream based on the denial of Israel's right to exist. The need for the destruction of Israel is the dominant theme that made death and destruction the core values of a once liberal Islamic culture.

The new book defends the existence of Israel and terms armed Palestinian groups as "dangerous terrorist threats." Allam added that the main cause for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute stems from Palestinian terror. His interest in the history of Zionism and a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat brought him to realize that "Arafat was responsible for Palestinian terrorism" and that "the predication of the ideology of death eventually hit and harmed the Palestinians themselves." Many Muslims in Italy denounce Allam as a new "Salman Rushdie," the British writer who was forced into hiding in the 1990s after Iran's religious leaders issued a fatwa (religious edict) calling for his death.