Home Articles Comparitive Religion Famous Converts to Islam (long list)
Famous Converts to Islam (long list) PDF Print E-mail
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From Abrahamic religions

From Christianity


A

  • Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - former NFL football player
  • Abu Tammam - 9th century Arab poet born to Christian parents.
  • Abu Usamah - controversial American-born Imam of Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, UK. Accused of preaching messages of hate towards non-Muslims in a UK Television documentary.
  • Ahmad Rashād - Emmy award-winning sportscaster (mostly with NBC Sports) and former American football wide receiver.
  • Ahmed Santos - Filipino, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative converted From Catholicism
  • Ahmad Thomson - British barrister and writer and also a member of the Murabitun movement.
  • Akhenaton - French rapper and producer of French hip hop.
  • Alexander Litvinenko - former Russian spy converted to Islam on his deathbed.
  • Alexander Russell Webb - Former Presbyterian. American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines.
  • André Carson - former Baptist, second Muslim to serve the United States Congress.
  • Anthony Green or Abdul Raheem Green, Converted from Catholicism to Islam, and is now an Islamic lecturer.
  • Art Blakey - American Jazz musician
  • Aukai Collins - fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book

B

  • Benjamin Chavis - controversial former head of the NAACP; joined the Nation of Islam, which is not connected with traditional Islam in anyway.
  • Bernard Hopkins - American boxer
  • Betty Shabazz - wife of Malcolm X; former Methodist.
  • Bilal Philips - Islamic scholar and author
  • Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup

C

D

E

  • Éric Abidal (changed his name to Bilal) - French football player , converted to Islam after marriage.
  • Everlast - Rapper from the Irish-American hip-hop group House of Pain, converted From Catholicism. 

F

  • Franck Ribéry- a French football player. His name after he converted to Islam is Bilal.

G

H

I

  • Ian Dallas - Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi - Sufi shaykh of Scottish origins.
  • Ibrahim Muteferrika (original name not known) - From Unitarian Christianity, an early example of a Muslim publisher and printer.
  • Ilie II Rareş - prince of Moldavia.
  • Ingrid Mattson - Canadian scholar and current president of the Islamic Society of North America (2006) converted From Catholicism.
  • Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
  • Ivan Aguéli (Johan Agelii) - famous Swedish painter.
  • Iyasu V - Ethiopian emperor.

J

  • C. Jack Ellis - Mayor of Macon, Georgia
  • Jacques-Francois Menou - French general under Napoleon I of France.
  • James Yee - previously Lutheran and former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain.
  • Jean de Béthencourt - French explorer who led an expedition to the Canary Islands.
  • Jeffrey Lang, a mathematics professor in USA.
  • Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) - former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson.
  • Jerôme Courtailler - one of two French brothers convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists
  • Jimmy Cliff - Jamaican reggae musician.
  • Joe Tex - soul singer and recording artist.
  • St. John Philby - Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence operative; converted from Anglicanism.
  • John Walker Lindh - the "American Taliban" converted From Catholicism
  • John Whitehead - an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.
  • John Nelson - first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim.
  • Jonathan Birt, Jonathan Birt, the son of Lord Birt, former director-general of the BBC, and Emma Clark, the granddaughter of former liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith.
  • Joseph Thomas - Australian convert, acquitted of terrorism charges, placed under a control order under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, currently pending retrial.
  • Judar Pasha - conqueror of the Songhai Empire.

K

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - retired basketball player & the NBA's all-time leading scorer
  • Keith Ellison - American, Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, converted From Catholicism
  • Kevin Barrett - university lecturer and member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
  • Khalid Yasin - Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute, and a Shaykh currently residing in Australia.
  • Knud Holmboe - Danish journalist and explorer converted From Catholicism.
  • Prof. Keith L. Moore

L

M

  • Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - retired basketball player
  • Malcolm X - American, from Christianity to Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam, African-American civil rights leader.
  • Marmaduke Pickthall - famous translator of the Quran.
  • Mario Scialoja - Italian ambassador and President of the World Muslim League.
  • Matthew Saad Muhammad (formerly Matthew Franklin) - former boxer, converted From Catholicism.
  • Michael Muhammad Knight - American novelist, writer, and journalist.
  • Michael Wolfe the American director.
  • Mihnea Turcitul - was a Prince (Voivode) of Walachia. Converted from Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
  • Mohammad Yousuf - Pakistani cricketer. Known for holding the world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year, converted From Catholicism.
  • Mohammed Knut Bernström - Swedish ambassador to Venezuela (1963–1969), Spain (1973–1976) and Morocco (1976–1983)
  • Mohammed Zakariya - an American master of Arabic calligraphy, best known for his work on the popular Eid U.S. postage stamp.
  • Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (Philip Barker) - professor of Urdu, former chair of the University of Minnesota's Department of South Asian studies and creator of the Tékumel fantasy world.
  • Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay), from Baptist to The Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam. famous boxer.
  • Muhammed al-Ahari born January 6, 1965 as Ray Allen Rudder is an American essayist, scholar and writer on the topics of American Islam, Black Nationalist groups, heterodox Islamic groups and modern occultism
  • Murad Wilfred Hofmann - NATO official, converted From Catholicism
  • Michael Jackson-officially said to have converted to Islam at a ceremony at Los Angeles from Jehova's witness on 21 November.

N

O

  • Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III in Natchez, Mississippi[1] on 12 January 1941) is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer
  • Omar Bongo - Gabonese, President of Gabon.
  • Omar Pasha - Ottoman general. Converted from Serbian Orthodoxy.

P

  • Peter Murphy - vocalist of the goth/rock group Bauhaus, converted From Catholicism.
  • Poncke Princen - Dutch soldier, later human rights activist, converted From Catholicism.
  • Preacher Moss - Former Baptist, American comedian and comedy writer.

Q

R

S

  • Salman the Persian A convert from Christianity who was previously Zoroastrian. In search for truth, he traveled to Syria to follow Christianity. Upon the death of his teachers, he was directed to head to Arabia, where he was told the final prophet will rise. He later converted to Islam and became one of Muhammad's first companions.
  • Sana al-Sayegh, dean of the Science and Technology Faculty at Palestine International University, converted to Islam in August 2007. Fatah has accused its political rival Hamas of forcing the professor to convert from Christianity, a charge Hamas denies.
  • Sarah Joseph - commentator on women's issues and founder of emel magazine, converted From Catholicism.
  • Brad Terrence Jordan ("Scarface") - American rapper
  • Silma Ihram - formerly a born again Baptist who is an Australian pioneer of Muslim education in the West, founder and former school Principal of the 'Noor Al Houda Islamic College', campaigner for racial tolerance, and Author.
  • Siraj Wahaj - Former Baptist. African-American Imam, noted for his efforts to eliminate Brooklyn's drug problems.
  • Sheila Musaji - founder of The American Muslim magazine.
  • Suhaib Webb - American Islamic activist and speaker.
  • Suleiman Pasha - French-born Egyptian commander.

T

  • Tariq Abdul-Wahad (Olivier Saint-Jean) - originally from France, former basketball player for the Mavericks and Kings
  • Tawana Brawley (changed her name to Maryam Muhammad) - African American woman noted for claiming to have been raped by several white men, a claim determined to be a fabrication by a grand jury. Later in life she converted to Islam.
  • Tekuder - Mongol leader of the Ilkhan empire who was formerly a Nestorian Christian.
  • Thomas J. Abercrombie - photographer
  • Timothy Winter - prominent British Islamic thinker and scholar, and a lecturer in Islamic studies in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.
  • Top Topham - rock guitarist from England.
  • Torquato Cardilli - Italian ambassador, converted From Catholicism.

U

V

  • Vincenzo Luvineri - American rapper and the lyricist behind the Philadelphia underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks, converted From Catholicism.

W

  • Wadih el-Hage born to a Maronite Christian family in Sidon, Lebanon, a former al-Qaeda member.
  • William Abdullah Quilliam - 19th century British poet, ambassador and journalist.
  • Willie Brigitte - French convert to Islam who associated with al-Qaeda in Pakistan and was possibly involved in a plot to conduct a terrorist operation in Australia.

X

Y

  • Yahiya Emerick - American Muslim scholar, President of the Islamic Foundation of North America, converted from Protestantism.
  • Yasin Abu Bakr (Lennox Philip) - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of 9 March 2006
  • Yusuf Estes - Former preacher and federal prison chaplain, converted from Protestantism.
  • Yvonne Ridley - British journalist, from Anglicanism. She converted after being kidnapped and released by the Taliban.
  • Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) - Famous Singer

Z

  • Zaid Shakir - African-American Muslim speaker and intellectual in the United States.
  • Zağanos Pasha - one of the prominent military commanders of Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) and a lala, at once an advisor, mentor, tutor, councillor, protector, for the sultan.

From Judaism

Jewish actress, Leila Mourad
  • Abdullah ibn Salam - 7th century sahabi said to have been a rabbi of aristocratic stock.
  • Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi - influential physicist, philosopher, and scientist who wrote a critique of Aristotelian philosophy and Aristotelian physics.
  • Ibn Kammuna or was a 13th Century physician (ophthalmologist) and philosopher who lived in Baghdad.[
  • Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al was an Arab Muslim mathematician and astronomer of Jewish descent. His father was a Jewish Rabbi from Morocco, but al-Samawʾal converted to Islam.
  • Jacob Querido - 17th century successor of the self-proclaimed Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
  • Jemima Goldsmith daughter of the billionaire Sir James, that was married to Imran Khan
  • Leila Mourad - Egyptian singer and actress who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s.
  • Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) - Viennese journalist who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, his son Talal Asad is an anthropologist at the City University of New York
  • Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al - mathematician and astronomer who wrote critical works on Judaism, his former faith.
  • Rashid al-Din - 13th century Persian physician
  • Suleyman Ahmad an American journalist and author
  • Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey (Yale Singer) - a pioneer in the development of Islamic culture in the United States.
  • Yaqub ibn Killis - 10th century Egyptian vizier under the Fatimids.

From Dharmic religions

From Buddhism

  • The Barmakid family - originally the guardians of the great Buddhist shrine near Balkh, upon conversion they became "the greatest family" in the early Abbasid caliphate.
  • Mahmud Ghazan - seventh ruler of the Ilkhanate.
  • Muhammad Khodabandeh - eighth Ilkhaid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316.
  • Mubarak Shah - head of the ulus of the Chagatai Khanate (1252–1260, March-September 1266).
  • Tarmashirin - Khan of the Chagatai Khanate following Duwa Timur.
  • Hussein Ye - An Islamic scholar of Chinese descent whose lectures are frequently aired on Peace TV.

From Hinduism

Parameswara (sultan) the Palembang prince of Hindu descent.
  • Parameswara - Malay prince of Palembang Hindu descent from Srivijaya that founded the Sultanate of Malacca around 1402.
  • Dhiren Barot - convicted terrorist, who confessed to planning "to detonate a dirty bomb and launch an attack on London's Tube".
  • Sumita Devi - Bengali actress and filmmaker.
  • Vilayil Fazila - popular Mappila songs singer from Kerala.
  • Malik Kafur - Indian military general.
  • Abdul Wahid Pedersen - Danish cleric.
  • Sahaj Ram Sapru - the grandfather of the British-Indian Muslim Philosopher, Sir Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, who was an official in Kashmir during the administration of the Afghan Governor Azim Khan.
  • Kamala Suraiyya (formerly Kamala Das) - Anglo-Malayalam writer
  • Sharmila Tagore - Bollywood film actress.
  • Allah Rakha Rahman - Bollywood music director, Singer.
  • Kabir Suman-excellent modern bengali singer & songwriter officially converted to islam from Hinduism in 2000.

From Sikhism

Other

From Paganism

See also: List of Sahaba
  • Berke - grandson of Genghis Khan and leader of the Golden Horde who was the first Mongol ruler to establish Islam in a Mongol state.
  • David Myatt - from Paganism, former Neo-Nazi-activist
  • Negudar - Mongol general and noyan
  • Nogai Khan - Mongol general and great-grandson of Genghis Khan.
  • Samori Ture - founder of the Wassoulou Empire who resisted French rule in West Africa.
  • Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan - 9th century Uyghur ruler who was one of the first Turks to convert to Islam.
  • Tuda Mengu - Mongol leader of the Golden Horde
West African leader Samori Ture who fought European colonialism

From Zoroastrianism

From Atheism

  • A. R. Rahman (Initially raised Hindu, but was atheist as a teenager until conversion to Islam) - famous Indian music composer
  • Zhang Chengzhi - contemporary Hui Chinese author; raised as an atheist.
  • Charles le Gai Eaton - British diplomat and writer.
  • Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) - British musician and singer (had a nominally Christian upbringing, but never was a believer)
  • Jeffrey Lang - American, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas. (Raised Catholic, but atheist from age 18 to conversion)[201][202]
  • Martin Lings - a widely acclaimed British scholar. He was raised as a Protestant, became an atheist, and later converted to Islam.
  • Mos Def - American rapper and actor.

Undetermined former religion

Ice Cube, famous rapper , actor, screenwriter and director.
Swiss explorer, Isabelle Eberhardt
  • Charles John Pelham (Abdul Mateen), 8th Earl of Yarborough.
  • Q-Tip - North American hip-hop emcee, actor, and hip hop producer who was the leader of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest.
  • Dwight Muhammad Qawi - former boxing world heavyweight champion.
  • Jack Roche - convicted of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra.
  • Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka "Carlos the Jackal", convicted murderer and terrorist, currently in prison in France.
  • Ibrahim Savant - one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom.
  • Frithjof Schuon - metaphysician, poet, painter, philosopher (in the original and Platonic sense of this term), and a leading figure of the perennialist school.
  • Stephen Schwartz - American journalist, columnist, and author.
  • Derrick Shareef- charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans 22 December at the CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois during the Christmas rush.
  • Sahib Shihab - jazz saxophonist and flautist.
  • Divine Styler - American hip-hop musician.
  • Nahshid Sulaiman - alternative hip hop artist.
  • Apisai Tora - Fijian politician.
  • Mike Tyson (Malik Abdul Aziz) - former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Converted while in prison after being convicted of rape.
  • Abdul Waheed (Don Stewart-Whyte) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot.
  • Jason Walters - of the Netherlands, member of the Hofstad Network, convicted on charges of terrorism.
  • John Ward - (changed name to Yusuf Reis) British corsair and pirate.
  • Rakan Ben Williams - suspected member of Al-Qaeda terrorist.
  • Michael Wolfe - American poet, author, and the President and Executive Producer of Unity Productions Foundation.
  • Michael X - civil rights activist in the United Kingdom
  • Yusuf Chambers - U.K. based Da'ee of international fame. Yusuf Chambers is a young preacher from London, has greatly involved himself in many organizations in U.K. and outside like Peace TV, Islam Channel, Al-Jumuah magazine, Unity TV etc



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