ITALY’S most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, has converted to Catholicism in a baptism carried out by the Pope at a Vatican Easter service.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Easter Sunday Mass in rain-drenched St Peter’s Square and rejoiced over conversions to Christianity, a day after he baptised a prominent Muslim commentator.

POPE Benedict XVI won praise from Jews and respect from Muslims for his blunt warnings about the rise of anti-Semitism and terrorism in the world - issues that are likely to define his papacy and ones which he confronted head-on during his first foreign trip as pope.