List of Muslim converts
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This is a list of notable people who have converted to Islam sometime during their lives. According to the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), 20,000 Americans convert to Islam every year, 6 percent are Latinos.[1] Although there are no precise figures, observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousand men and women convert to Islam each year, including an estimated 1,000 British Christians, and members of other faiths.[2][3] An estimated 200,000 Filipinos have converted to Islam since the 1970s.[4] In Israel, 70 Jews converted to Islam in 2006, more than twice the number in previous years.[5]
Contents |
[edit] From Christianity
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- Gary Miller (Abdul-Ahad Omar) - from Christianity, former priest & missionary administration of the Committee on Relations with Public Associations
- C. Jack Ellis - from Christianity, Mayor of Macon, Georgia[6]
- Keith Ellison - American, raised Catholic, Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to Congress[7]
- Murad Wilfred Hofmann - from Catholic Christianity, NATO official[8]
- El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X, Malcolm Little) - American, from Christianity to NOI to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader[9]
- Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), American, from Christianity to NOI to Sunni Islam to Sufism,[10] SI's Sportsman of the Century
- Yvonne Ridley - British journalist, converted from Anglicanism after being kidnapped by the Taliban[11]
- Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) - former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson.[12]
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar(Lew Alcindor) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player & the NBA's all-time leading scorer[13]
- Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player[14]
- Idris Tawfiq - British writer, who lives and works in Egypt, was a former Catholic priest[15]
- David Chappelle – Comedian & television star[16]
- Tariq Abdul-Wahad - originally from France, former basketball player for the Mavericks and Kings[17]
- Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - American, from Christianity, former NFL football player[18]
- Nicolas Anelka - French football player[19]
- Chris Eubank - British boxer[20]
- Bernard Hopkins - Boxer[21]
- Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup
- Matthew Saad Muhammad (Matthew Franklin) - from Catholicism, former boxer
- Dwight Muhammad Qawi - Boxer
- Ahmad Rashad (Bobby Moore) - American, former NFL football player
- Franck Ribery - French football player, currently plays for Marseille[22]
- Philippe Troussier - French, former football player & trainer of a Japanese football team[23]
- Danny Williams - British boxer[24]
- Mohammad Yousuf (Yousuf Youhana) - Pakistani, from Christianity, cricket player[25]
- 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
- Yusuf Estes - from Christianity, former pastor & prison chaplain
- Shah Shahidullah Faridi - English Sufi scholar
- 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
- Ingrid Mattson – Canadian scholar and current president of the Islamic Society of North America (2006)
- Bilal Philips - from Christianity, Islamic scholar & author
- Zaid Shakir - Islamic scholar
- Abu Usamah - Imam of Green Lane Masjid- supporter of terrorism[26][27]
- Siraj Wahaj - from Christianity
- Khalid Yasin - American, from Christianity, Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute (ITI)
- Hamza Yusuf - from Orthodox Christianity - Islamic scholar
- Michael Wolfe Author of The Hajj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca, and One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage. Born of a Christian mother and Jewish father, he is most well known for his documentary on ABC’s Nightline which aired on April 18, 1997 called An American in Mecca.
- Thomas J. Abercrombie - Photographer
- Ivan Aguéli - Artist
- Muhammed al-Ahari - American, from Christianity, essayist
- Dawud Wharnsby Ali - Canadian Singer/poet, from Christianity.[28]
- Lewis Arquette - American film actor, writer and producer.
- Yahya Birt - Journalist and son of former BBC Director General John Birt
- Art Blakey - Musician
- Amir Butler - Australian, a Salafi author
- Ian Dallas - Writer
- Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
- Alys Faiz - Poet
- Knud Holmboe - 20th century Danish journalist & explorer
- Abdullah Ibrahim (A. J. Brand) - South African pianist & composer
- Sarah Joseph - Commentator on women's issues and editor of emel magazine
- Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood - British, from Protestant Christianity, author
- Daniel Moore - from Christianity, poet
- Preacher Moss - American comedian and comedy writer
- Harry St. John Philby - from Anglicanism, Arabist, explorer, writer & British colonial office intelligence operative
- Prince Buster - Musician
- Q-Tip - hiphop MC; former leader of A Tribe Called Quest
- William Abdullah Quilliam - from Christianity, poet, solicitor, ambassador & journalist
- Scarface - Rapper, producer, from Christianity
- Omar Sharif – Egyptian actor
- Idris Tawfiq - British writer, who lives and works in Egypt, was a former Catholic priest
- Danny Thompson - Musician
- Richard Thompson - Musician
- Alexander Russell Webb - American, from Presbyterian Christianity, 19th Century U.S. journalist
- Michael Wolfe - Writer & documentarist
- Mohammed Knut Bernström - Swedish ambassador to Venezuela (1963-1969), Spain (1973-1976) and Morocco (1976-1983)
- Khaled Edward Blair - English barrister, married to Princess Badiya of Jordan
- Torquato Cardilli - Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2000-2003)
- Brandon Mayfield - U.S. attorney-at-law with a practice in Washington County, Oregon
- Mario Scialoja - Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1994-1995) and former permanent Italian ambassador to the United Nations.
- Sultaana Freeman (Sandra Keller)
- Queen Noor of Jordan (Lisa Najeeb Halaby)
- Mumia Abu-Jamal (Wesley Cook) - journalist, Black Panther, political activist, known for his 1982 conviction and death sentence on charges of a police officer, and for a nationally popular counter-culture campaign to free him
- Jeffrey Lang - American, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas
- Susanne Osthoff - German archaeologist & former hostage in Iraq
- Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley - British soldier
- Józef Bem - Polish-Hungarian general
- Claude Alexandre de Bonneval - French-born Austrian general
- Radu cel Frumos – Wallachian ruler
- Omer Pasha - From Serbian Orthodoxy, Bosnian general
- Suleiman Pasha - French-born
- Poncke Princen – Dutch soldier
- Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Austrian lieutenant and British colonial administrator (conversion nominal)
- Alexander Litvinenko, lieutenant-colonel in the KGB (Russia's security service)
- Yasin Abu Bakr - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006[29]
- David Belfield - American, fled to Iran after assassinating Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident,[30] is charged with murder[31]
- Germaine Lindsay - participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings[32][33][34]
- Christian Ganczarski - suspected by German authorities of ties with high ranking Al Qaeda officials[35]
- Vladimir Khodov - from Russian Orthodoxy, allegedly participated in the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren[36]
- Pavel Kosolapov - Russian, suspected by Russian authorities of planning several suicide operations in Chechnya[37][38]
- Ahmed Santos (militant) - Filipino, from Roman Catholicism, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative[39][40][41]
- Adam Yahiye Gadahn - On the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list[42][43]
- Ryan G. Anderson - former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda[44][45]
- Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka "Carlos the Jackal"[46]
- John Walker Lindh - the American Taliban[47]
- Richard Colvin Reid - Shoe Bomber[48]
- Mehmed-paša Sokolović - Serb; from Orthodox Christianity to Islam; one of the most powerful Ottoman officials in history
[edit] From Hinduism
- Kamala Suraiya – Indian, from Hinduism, writer
- Sumita Devi - (Nilufar Begum) Bangladeshi Actress from Hinduism
- Muhammad Shafi Saravanan Abdullah- Indian Muslim convert living in Malaysia, in a legal dispute with his Hindu wife, because of him trying to convert his son. [[54]]
- A. R. Rahman ( A.S. Dileep Kumar) – Indian, from Hinduism, music film composer and director
[edit] Undetermined Former Religion
- Omar Bongo - Gabonese, President of Gabon[49]
- Amir Butler[50]
- Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) - Islamic activist, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).[51]
- Johann von Leers - advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his anti-Semitic polemics[52][53][54]
- Apisai Tora - Fijian politician[55]
- Jill Courtney - Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people[56][57][58][59]
- Aukai Collins - Hawaiian American, fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book[60]
- Abdul Waheed (Don Stewart-White) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot[61][62]
- Jerôme Courtailler and David Courtailler - two French brothers, convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists[63][64][65]
- Mike Tyson- former heavyweight boxing champion of the world.[66]
- Jacques-Francois Menou - French general [67]
- Tejatat Tejasen - Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and is the former Dean of the faculty of Medicine, University of Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Jason Walters - of the Netherlands, member of the Hofstad Network
[edit] From Paganism
- David Myatt - from Paganism, Neo-Nazi-activist[68]
[edit] From Judaism
- Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad) - Viennese Jew who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations[69]
- Lev Nussimbaum - from Judaism, writer- Nazi supporter
- Maryam Jameelah - from Reform Judaism, essayist, poet, journalist & author
- Jemima Goldsmith - British, from Judaism, socialite & ex-wife of Imran Khan
- Rashid al-Din – Persian physician
[edit] From Non-Religious to Islam
- Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) - British musician & singer[70]
[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
- Lists of Muslims
- List of former Muslims
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ CNN: Macon, Georgia, mayor converts to Islam
- ^ [6]
- ^ Brief biography of Murad Hoffman
- ^ Official website of Malcom X: Biography
- ^ [7]
- ^ "Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert", By Hannah Bayman, BBC News (online), 21 September, 2004
- ^ [8]
- ^ [9]
- ^ [10]
- ^ [11]
- ^ [12]
- ^ [13]
- ^ [14]
- ^ [15]
- ^ Telegraph.co.uk - Lengthy queue to join religion that offers 'sense of direction'
- ^ [16]
- ^ [17]
- ^ [18]
- ^ [19]
- ^ [20]
- ^ American-Born Imam Spews Message of Hate in England Fox News- January 18,2007
- ^ Radical cleric praises bin Laden Daily Mail
- ^ [21]
- ^ [22]
- ^ [23]
- ^ [24]
- ^ [25]
- ^ [26]
- ^ [27]
- ^ [28]
- ^ [29]
- ^ [30]
- ^ [31]
- ^ [32]
- ^ [33]
- ^ [34]
- ^ [35]
- ^ [36]
- ^ [37]
- ^ [38]
- ^ [39]
- ^ <[40]
- ^ [41]
- ^ BBC Profile: Gabon's 'president for life
- ^ FourCorners Opinion: Amir Butler
- ^ PBS.org - Perspecives: American Muslim Issues
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)
- ^ The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee (1997, ISBN 0-316-51959-6)
- ^ Behind the Egyptian Sphinx: Nasser's strange bedfellows; prelude to World War III? by Irving Sedar and Harold J. Greenberg (Philadelphia, Chilton Co., 1960)
- ^ Tvnz.co.nz
- ^ http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18602182%255E903,00.html]
- ^ [42]
- ^ [43]
- ^ [44]
- ^ [45]
- ^ [46]
- ^ [47]
- ^ [48]
- ^ [49]
- ^ [50]
- ^ [51]
- ^ Afaf Lutfi Sayyid-Marsot. Women and Men in Late Eighteenth-Century Egypt. p. 90.
- ^ [52]
- ^ Biography of Muhammad Asad
- ^ [53]
