List of Muslim converts

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This is a list of notable people who have converted to Islam sometime during their lives.

Contents 1 Politics 2 Sports 3 Religious figures 4 Islamic Scholars 5 Philosophy 6 Media, Arts and Entertainment 7 Lawyers 8 Society 9 Science 10 Military Officers 11 Secret Service 12 Militants 13 Crimes 13.1 Terrorism related 13.1.1 Suicide attackers 13.1.2 Convicted of terrorism-related offenses 13.1.3 Accused of Terrorist Activity 13.2 Other crimes 13.3 Falsely Accused and Exhonerated of Crimes 14 See also 15 References

[edit] Politics

• Khaled Edward Blair - English barrister, married to Princess Badiya of Jordan
• Jean-Bédel Bokassa - Central African, from Catholicism, President and Emperor of the Central African Republic (later reconverted to Catholicism)
• Omar Bongo - Gabonese, President of Gabon
• Keith Ellison - American, from Catholicism, Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to Congress
• Murad Wilfred Hofmann - from Catholic Christianity, NATO official
• Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) - Islamic activist
• Iyasu V - Ethiopian, former Emperor of Ethiopia
• Mathieu Kérékou - Beninese, from Christianity, President of Benin (later reconverted to Christianity)
• Johann von Leers - advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his anti-Semitic polemics.^{[1] [2][3]}
• David Myatt - from Paganism, Neo-Nazi-activist [5]
• El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X, Malcolm Little) - American, from Christianity to NOI to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader.
• Apisai Tora - Fijian politician
• David Musa Pidcock - Founder of Islamic Party of Britain
• Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad) - Viennese Jew who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations

[edit] Sports

• Tariq Abdul-Wahad Originally from France, former basketball player for the Mavericks and Kings
• Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - American, from Christianity, former NFL football player
• Ahmad Rashad (Bobby Moore) - American, former NFL football player
• Ahmed Santos - American publicist & former boxer
• Anthony Mundine - Australian, from Christianity, boxer and former rugby player
• Bernard Hopkins - boxer
• Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup
• Chris Eubank - British boxer
• Danny Williams - British boxer
• Dwight Muhammad Qawi - boxer
• Franck Ribery - French football player, currently plays for Marseille
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player & the NBA's all-time leading scorer
• Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player
• Matthew Saad Muhammad - from Catholicism, former boxer
• Mike Tyson American, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world
• Mohammad Yousuf (Yousuf Youhana) - Pakistani, from Christianity, cricket player
• Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), American, from Christianity to NOI to Sunni Islam to Sufism [6], retired boxer
• Mustafa Hamsho - boxer
• Nicolas Anelka - French football player
• Philippe Troussier - French, former football player & trainer of a Japanese football team
• Rasheed Wallace - American basketball player

[edit] Religious figures

• Abudul-Ahad Dawud (David Benjamin Keldani) - from Catholicism, former Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect scholar from Harvard & a former deacon of United Methodist church
• Maimonides - Jewish philosopher, theologian, and physician forced to convert to Islam under pain of death during the Cordoba massacre of 1148. Reverted to Judaism when his life was no longer under threat.^[4]
• Abdul-Ahad Omar (Gary Miller) - from Christianity, former priest & missionary administration of the Committee on Relations with Public Associations
• Jacob Querido - from Judaism, successor to Shabbetai Tzvi
• Abu Yahya (Jerald F. Dirks) - from Christianity, Hollis
• Shabbetai Tzvi - from Judaism under threat of execution, claimed to be messiah
• Umar Faruq Abd-Allah - from Protestantism, Islamic scholar
• Yusuf Estes - from Christianity, former pastor & prison chaplain

[edit] Islamic Scholars

• Hamid Algar - British professor at the University of California, Berkeley, expert in the Ja'fari school of thought & Iranian civilization
• Aminah Assilmi - from Southern Baptist Christianity, scholar & director of the International Union of Muslim Women
• Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker - professor of Urdu, former chair of the University of Minnesota's Department of South Asian studies and creator of the Tékumel fantasy world.
• Kevin Barrett - lecturer, conspiracy theorist
• Nuh Ha Mim Keller - from Catholicism to agnosticism to Sufism, Islamic scholar
• Sherman Jackson - Islamic scholar & Academic, Near East Studies & Law School at the University of Michigan
• Martin Lings - from Protestantism to Sufism
• Ingrid Mattson - Canadian scholar
• Thomas McElwain - (disputed) from Baptist Christianity, former minister, a Professor of History & Comparative religion. NOTE: He still consiters himself a baptist
• Bilal Philips - from Christianity, Islamic scholar & author
• Muhammad Pickthall (Marmaduke Pickthall) - from Christianity, a translator of the Qur'an
• Zaid Shakir - Islamic scholar
• Timothy J. Winter - lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge
• Khalid Yasin - American, from Christianity, Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute (ITI)
• Hamza Yusuf - from Orthodox Christianity - Islamic scholar

[edit] Philosophy

• Titus Burckhardt - German Swiss philosopher, historian & mystic
• Roger Garaudy - French philosopher and writer, Holocaust denier
• Sheikh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon) - French, from Catholicism to Sufism, philosopher

[edit] Media, Arts and Entertainment

• Ali Bey al-Abbasi - writer, explorer (disputed)
• Muhammed al-Ahari - American, from Christianity, essayist
• Muhammad Asad - from Judaism, writer
• Yahya Birt - Journalist and son of former BBC Director General John Birt
• Amir Butler - Australian, a Salafi author
• Steve Centanni - American journalist, forced to convert to Islam by Islamist kidnappers in the Gaza Strip as a condition for his release.^{[5] [6]}
• David Chappelle - comedian & television star
• Ian Dallas - writer
• Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
• Everlast - American, singer/songwriter
• Knud Holmboe - 20th century Danish journalist & explorer
• Abdullah Ibrahim (A. J. Brand) - South African pianist & composer
• Ice Cube - Rapper & Actor
• Diana Haddad - Lebanese singer from Christianity
• Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) - British, from Greek Orthodox Christianity, musician & singer
• Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) - former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson
• Maryam Jameelah - from Reform Judaism, essayist, poet, journalist & author
• Sarah Joseph - Commentator on women's issues and editor of emel magazine
• Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood - British, from Protestant Christianity, author
• Daniel Moore - from Christianity, poet
• Mos Def - American rapper & actor
• Lev Nussimbaum - from Judaism, writer
• Harry St. John Philby - from Anglicanism, Arabist, explorer, writer & British colonial office intelligence operative
• William Abdullah Quilliam - from Christianity, poet, solicitor, ambassador & journalist
• A. R. Rahman ( A.S. Dileep Kumar) - Indian, from Hinduism, music film composer and director
• Yvonne Ridley - British journalist, converted from Anglicanism after being kidnapped by the Taliban.^[7]
• Stephen Schwartz - Jewish born, Protestant mother, Sufi neoconservative journalist
• Kamala Suraiya - Indian, from Hinduism, writer
• Alexander Russell Webb - American, from Presbyterian Christianity, 19th Century U.S. journalist
• Michael Wolfe - writer & documentarist
• Dawud Wharnsby Ali - Canadian Singer/poet, from Christianity
• scarface - rapper, producer, from Christianity
• Danny Thompson - Musician
• Richard Thompson - Musician
• Olaf Wiig - New Zealand cameraman, forced to convert to Islam by Islamist kidnappers in the Gaza Strip as a condition for his release.^{[8] [9]}

[edit] Lawyers

Brandon Mayfield - U.S. attorney-at-law with a practice in Washington County, Oregon

[edit] Society

• Jemima Goldsmith - British, from Judaism, socialite & ex-wife of Imran Khan
• Ayesha Sultana (Sharmila Tagore) - Bangladeshi-Indian, from Hinduism, Bollywood actress, married Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi

[edit] Science

• Jeffrey Lang - American, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas
• Susanne Osthoff - German archaeologist & former hostage in Iraq

[edit] Military Officers

• Mehemet Ali - German-born Ottoman general
• Józef Bem - Polish-Hungarian general
• Claude Alexandre de Bonneval - French-born Austrian general
• Jacques-Francois Menou - French general, governor of Egypt
• Omer Pasha - From Serbian Orthodoxy, Bosnian general
• Suleiman Pasha - French-born Egyptian general
• Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Austrian lieutenant and British colonial administrator (conversion nominal)

[edit] Secret Service

• Alexander Litvinenko, lieutenant-colonel in the KGB (Russia's security service) and later a Russian dissident and writer who is thought to have been poisoned in London. Converted 2 days before his death.

[edit] Militants

• Aukai Collins - Hawaiian American, fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book [7]
• Bob Denard - French mercenary
• The Portland Seven - Jeffrey Leon Battle, Patrice Lumumba Ford and October Lewis

[edit] Crimes

[edit] Terrorism related

See also religious conversion and terrorism.

[edit] Suicide attackers

The following converts died in the commission of suicide attacks against civilians:

• Germaine Lindsay - participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings [8] [9] [10]

[edit] Convicted of terrorism-related offenses

These individuals have been convicted on charges related to terrorism:

• Ryan G. Anderson - former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda [11] [12]
• Dhiren Barot - convicted of the 2004 Financial buildings plot using radioactive dirty bombs
• Jerôme Courtailler and David Courtailler - two French brothers, convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists [13] [14] [15]
• Wadih el-Hage - Lebanese, from Catholicism, Osama bin Laden's right hand man, convicted for conspiracy against the United States and mass murder
• Richard Colvin Reid - British "Shoe Bomber"
• Jack Roche - former Jemaah Islamiah member in Australia
• John Walker Lindh - Joined Afghanistan's Taliban movement.
• Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka "Carlos the Jackal"
• Jason Walters - of the Netherlands, member of the Hofstad Network [16]

[edit] Accused of Terrorist Activity

There have been allegations of terrorist activity have been laid against the following individuals, whose cases are pending:

• Adam Yahiye Gadahn - from Christianity, suspected Al Qaeda spokesman in the U.S.
• Christian Ganczarski - suspected by German authorities of ties with high ranking Al Qaeda officials [17]
• David Hicks - presumably from Christianity, held by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
• Umar Islam (Brian Young) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
• Vladimir Khodov - from Russian Orthodoxy, allegedly participated in the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren.[18]
• Pavel Kosolapov - Russian, suspected by Russian authorities of planning several suicide operations in Chechnya [19] [20]
• José Padilla - detained by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
• Ahmed Santos (militant) - Filipino, from Roman Catholicism, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative [21] [22] [23]
• Ibrahim Savant (Oliver Savant) - has been charged with conspiracy to murder and with preparing acts of terrorism in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
• Martine van den Oever - of the Netherlands, for abetting the Hofstad Network
• Abdul Waheed (Don Stewart-White) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot [24] [25]

[edit] Other crimes

These individuals have been accused and/or convicted of other notable crimes.

• Yasin Abu Bakr - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006 [26]
• Mumia Abu-Jamal - allegedly former member of Black Panther Party. Journalist, political activist, and convicted of murder, his case is being reinvestigated. He converted later.
• Hasan Akbar - U.S. soldier, convicted of killing two U.S. officers during duty in Kuwait [27]
• David Belfield - American, assassinated Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident and subsequently fled to Iran, [28] charged with murder [29]
• Jill Courtney - Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people [30] [31] [32] [33]
• Lee Boyd Malvo - junior partner of John Allen Muhammad in Beltway sniper attacks
• John Allen Muhammad - mastermind of Beltway sniper attacks. For a time, he was a memeber of the Nation of Islam.

[edit] Falsely Accused and Exhonerated of Crimes

These individuals are notable because they have been involved with high-profile cases in which they were falsely accused.

• James Yee - American captain accused of espionage and sedition before charges were dropped and recieving an honorable discharge from US military service.
• Brandon Mayfield - U.S. attorney-at-law with a practice in Washington County, Oregon who was falsely detained due to terrorist activity in Spain to which there was no connection.

[edit] See also

• Religious conversion
• List of converts to Christianity
• List of converts to Hinduism
• List of converts to Judaism
• List of people by belief
• List of Muslims
• List of Western Muslims
• List of American Muslims
• List of Islamic and Muslim related topics
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• List of people who left Islam

[edit] References

1. ^ Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)
2. ^ The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee (1997, ISBN 0-316-51959-6)
3. ^ Behind the Egyptian Sphinx: Nasser's strange bedfellows; prelude to World War III? by Irving Sedar and Harold J. Greenberg (Philadelphia, Chilton Co., 1960)
4. ^ Lewis (1984), p. 100
5. ^ [1]
6. ^ [2]
7. ^ "Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert", By Hannah Bayman, BBC News (online), 21 September, 2004
8. ^ [3]
9. ^ [4]