The Vatican on Thursday distanced itself from the anti-Islamic views of a prominent former Muslim who was baptised by the pope over Easter.
Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a leading Italian journalist and outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism, has been at the centre of a row since his conversion during a ceremony on Saturday presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.
Muslims have been up in arms at both the high-profile nature of the baptism and a lengthy article Allam published the following day suggesting that Islam was inherently violent.
''Welcoming a new believer into the Church clearly does not mean sharing in his ideas and positions,'' said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.
''Magdi Allam has the right to express his views, but these are personal ideas and are obviously in no way a reflection of the official position of the pope or of the Holy See,'' he added.
The furore comes at a sensitive time for the Vatican, which last month set a date in November for a groundbreaking summit on interfaith dialogue between Catholicism and Islam.
The future of the summit seemed up in the air following the publication of Allam's article, which a spokesman for the Muslim organisers said echoed a gaffe made by Pope Benedict at Regensburg in 2006.
In his address, the pope quoted a 14th-century emperor who described the Prophet Mohammed's teachings as violent, ''evil and inhuman''.
But the president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community (COREIS), Sergio Yahya Pallavicini, said moderate muslims were ''satisfied'' by the Vatican statement distancing itself from Allam.
''Let's close this chapter and move on,'' he said.
Allam has been a figure of controversy in Italy for some years.
His depiction of Islam as an aggressive religion and his support for Israel have prompted numerous death threats and resulted in an ongoing police escort.
The 55-year-old deputy editor of Italy's top daily, Il Corriere della Sera, Allam is the country's best-known commentator on Islamic issues, although he freely admits he has never been a practising Muslim.
However, his article on Sunday contained some of his bluntest criticism yet.
In the piece, published as a letter to the editor in Corriere della Sera, he wrote: ''the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual''.
The affair exploded just days after an audio tape was made public in which Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused the pope of involvement in a ''new Crusade'' against Islam.
The Vatican has been trying to patch up relations with Islam ever since Benedict's 2006 lecture in Germany.
The pope, whose lecture was not about Islam but the importance attached in the West to 'reason', stressed that the text did not reflect his own opinion and later said he regretted any offence the speech may have caused.
