 He also serves as a regional councillor in the Italian region of Basilicata after being elected in 2010 and a Member of the European Parliament for Italy since 2009.Allam was born in Egypt and raised by Muslim parents.His mother Safeya Allam was a believing and practicing Muslim, whereas his father Muhammad Allam was "completely secular and agreed with the [until the early seventies widely held] opinion of the majority of Egyptians who took the West as a model in regard to individual freedom, social customs and cultural and artistic fashions."