List of converts to Christianity from Islam

Updated on Sep 29, 2024

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Below List contains alphabetical listing of converts from earlier times until the end of the 19th century

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List of converts to Christianity from Islam List of converts to Christianity from Islam

Aslan Abashidze – this former leader of the Ajarian Autonomous Republic in western Georgia was born into a renowned Muslim Ajarian family, but later he converted to Christianity.

Basuki Abdullah – Indonesian painter; converted to Roman Catholicism

Ibrahim Abdullah – American former PLO terrorist

Saeed Abedini – Iranian-American pastor imprisoned in Iran, Abedini is an American and a former Muslim who converted to Christianity in 2000

Abo of Tiflis – Christian activist and the patron saint of the city of Tbilisi, Georgia

Abraham of Bulgaria – martyr and saint of the Russian Orthodox Church

Taysir Abu Saada – this former member of the PLO founded the ministry Hope For Ishmael after he converted to Christianity;Yasir Arafat's personal driver

Rotimi Adebari – first Black mayor in Ireland

St. Adolphus – martyr who was put to death along with his brother, John, by Abd ar-Rahman II, the Caliph of Córdoba, for apostasy

Jabalah ibn al-Aiham – last ruler of the Ghassanid state in Syria and Jordan in the 7th century AD; after the Islamic conquest of Levant he converted to Islam in AD 638; later reverted to Christianity and lived in Anatolia until he died in AD 645

Leo Africanus – Moorish diplomat who was converted to Christianity following his capture.

Safdar Ali – former Maulvi (cleric) from India

Mehmet Ali Ağca – Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on 1 February 1979; later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981; while in prison in 2007 he claimed to convert to Christianity

Magdi Allam (baptized as Magdi Cristiano Allam) – Italy's most famous Islamic affairs journalist

Saint Hodja Amiris – former Ottoman soldier stationed in Jerusalem who converted to Christianity in the 17th century and was subsequently tortured and killed for the crime of apostasy in Islam

Zachariah Anani – former Sunni Muslim Lebanese militia fighter

Hussain Andaryas – editor of the newspaper Afghan Times,

Juan Andrés – name chosen by a Spanish Muslim scholar who converted to Catholicism and wrote a well known polemical work against Islam, the Confusión o confutación de la secta mahomética y del Alcorán

Matthew Ashimolowo – Nigerian-born British pastor and evangelist

Avraamy Aslanbegov – Russian-Azeri vice-admiral and military writer of the Russian Empire, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Asmirandah – Indonesian actress of Dutch descent; converted to Protestantism in December 2013; owes her conversion to an experience of having dreamed three times of Jesus Christ

Aurelius and Natalia – martyrs who were put to death during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II, Caliph of Córdoba for apostasy

Johannes Avetaranian – born Muhammad Shukri Efendi, Christian missionary of Turkish heritage

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Parveen Babi – former Indian actress and an erstwhile fashion model; born in Junagadh, Gujarat to a Muslim family, and later converted to Christianity during the last years of her life, and was baptised in a Protestant Anglican church at Malabar Hill

Josephine Bakhita – Roman Catholic saint from Darfur, Sudan. She was forcibly converted to Islam On January 9, 1890 Bakhita was baptised with the names of Josephine Margaret and Fortunata.

Sarah Balabagan – Filipina prisoner in the United Arab Emirates, 1994-96

Fathima Rifqa Bary – American teenager of Sri Lankan descent who drew international attention in 2009 when she ran away from home and claimed that her Muslim parents might kill her for having converted to Christianity

Sheikh Ahmed Barzani – head of Barzani Tribe in Iraqi Kurdistan and older brother of Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish nationalist leader; announced his conversion to Christianity in 1931 during the anti-government uprising

Bashir Shihab II – Lebanese emir who ruled Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century; converted from Sunni Islam to Maronite Catholic

Simeon Bekbulatovich – Khan of Qasim Khanate

Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky – Russian officer of Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia

Ibrahim Ben Ali – soldier, physician, and one of the earliest American settlers of Turkish origin

Aloandro Ben Bekar – the last military Governor or Qadi of Faro, in Algarve, Portugal, at the time of its reconquest in 1249, and a descendant of Bakr Ben Yahia; he was later baptized

Mohammed Christophe Bilek – Algerian former Muslim who lives in France since 1961; baptized Roman Catholic in 1970; in the 1990s, he founded Our Lady of Kabyle, a French website devoted to evangelisation among Muslims

Francis Bok – Sudanese-American activist, convert to Islam from Christianity; but later returned to his Christian faith

Jean-Bédel Bokassa – Central African Republic Emperor (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

Thomas Boni Yayi – Beninese banker and politician who has been President of Benin since 2006; originally from a Muslim family; is now an Evangelical Protestant

Sayed Borhan Khan – Khan of Qasim Khanate from 1627 to 1679; was forced to convert to Christianity by Russian forces following the Siege of Kazan

Broery – Indonesian singer (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

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Moussa Dadis Camara – ex-officer of the Guinean army who served as the President of the Republic of Guinea; Roman Catholic Christian convert from Islam

Ergun Caner – Swedish-American academic, author, and Baptist minister

Rianti Cartwright – Indonesian actress, model, presenter and VJ; two weeks before departure to the United States to get married, she left the Muslim faith to become a baptized Catholic with the name Sophia Rianti Rhiannon Cartwright

Chamillionaire (born Hakeem Seriki) – American rapper

Chehab family – prominent Lebanese noble family; having converted from Sunni Islam, the religion of his predecessors, was the first Maronite ruler of the Emirate of Mount Lebanon

Djibril Cissé – French international footballer

Hansen Clarke – U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district

Eldridge Cleaver – initially associated with the Nation of Islam, then Evangelical Christianity, then Mormonism

Constantine the African – Baghdad-educated Muslim who died in 1087 as a Christian monk at Monte Cassino

Constantine Hagarit – born in Smyrna to a Muslim family under the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century; converted to Orthodox Christianity and was subsequently imprisoned, tortured and executed by hanging for apostasy on June 2, 1819

Converso – substantial numbers of Iberian Muslims who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. These New Christians of Moorish Berber origin were known as Moriscos. Over 1 million of these Moriscos were converted from Islam to Christianity, most of whom were forced to convert.

Michał Czajkowski – Polish-Cossack writer and political emigre who worked both for the resurrection of Poland and the reestablishment of a Cossack Ukraine

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Justinus Darmojuwono – first Indonesian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church; served as Archbishop of Semarang from 1963 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967; converted to Catholicism in 1932

Nonie Darwish – Egyptian-American writer, human rights activist, critic of Islam, founder of Arabs for Israel, Director of Former Muslims United

Sedar Dedeoglu – Turk who claims to be a descendant of Islam's prophet Muhammad; converted to Christianity while living in Germany

Hassan Dehqani-Tafti – first ethnic Persian to become a Christian bishop of Iran since the 7th century and the Islamic conquest of Persia

Mehdi Dibaj – Iranian Christian convert from Shia Islam, pastor and Christian martyr

Momolu Dukuly – Liberian politician; became the second foreign minister under William V.S. Tubman

Daniel Bambang Dwi Byantoro – leader (and Archimandrite) of the Indonesian Orthodox Church

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Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad – Egyptian former Muslim sheikh who theological discourse with a Christian led him to conduct an intensive study of Christian Scripture, after which he converted to Christianity in January 2005

Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari – second wife and Queen Consort of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran who converted to Roman Catholicism

Estevanico – Berber originally from Morocco and one of the early explorers of the Southwestern United States

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Joseph Fadelle (born Mohammed al-Sayyid al-Moussawi) – Roman Catholic convert from Islam and writer born in 1964 in Iraq to a Shiite family ·

Rima Fakih – Lebanese-American actress, model, professional wrestler and beauty pageant titleholder; Miss USA 2010; converted to Maronite Christianity

Donald Fareed – Iranian televangelist and minister

Hazem Farraj – Palestinian-American writer, minister, and televangelist

Mary Fillis

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Mark A. Gabriel – Egyptian Islamic scholar and writer

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross – counter-terrorism expert and attorney (from Judaism to Islam to Christianity)

Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila – American football defensive end who was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and is currently a free agent

George XI of Kartli – Georgian monarch who ruled Eastern Georgia from 1676 to 1688 and again from 1703 to 1709; an Eastern Orthodox Christian, he converted to Islam prior to his appointment as governor of Qandahar; later converted to Roman Catholicism

Fathia Ghali – Egyptian princess and youngest daughter of Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri

Ghias ad-din – Azeri prince of the Seljuk dynasty of Rum, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Ruffa Gutierrez – Filipina actress, model and former beauty queen (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

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Umar ibn Hafsun – leader of anti-Ummayad dynasty forces in southern Iberia; converted to Christianity with his sons and ruled over several mountain valleys for nearly forty years, having the castle Bobastro as his residence

Rajah Humabon – first Filipino Sultan convert to Roman Catholicism in the name of Carlos

Aben Humeya (born Fernando de Valor) – Morisco Chief who was crowned the Emir of Andalusia by his followers and led the Morisco Revolt against Philip II of Spain

Naveed Afzal Haq – Pakistani-American charged for the July 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shooting; converted to Christianity in December 2005 but reverted to Islam by the time of the shooting

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Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh – brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh, the wife of Muhammad and one of the male Sahaba (companions of Muhammad)

Tunch Ilkin – former Turkish American football player

Qadry Ismail – former American football player

Raghib Ismail – former American football player

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Sabatina James (born 1982) – born in Dhedar, Pakistan; Austrian-Pakistani book author; started a new life in Vienna, changing her name and converting to Catholicism; baptized in 2006

Esther John – born to a Pakistani Muslim family; converted to Christianity; became a nurse to rural communities in Northern India and was later murdered

Mario Joseph – born into a Muslim family in Kerala, India, he became a notable Imam before the age of 18, but subsequently converted to Catholicism whereupon he was tortured and forced to flee to Europe

Lina Joy – Malay convert from Islam to Christianity; born Azlina Jailani in 1964 in Malaysia to Muslim parents of Javanese descent; converted at age 26; in 1998, she was baptized, and applied to have her conversion legally recognized by the Malaysian courts

Don Juan of Persia (1560–1604) – late 16th- and early 17th-century figure in Iran and Spain; also known as Faisal Nazary; was a native of Iran, who later moved westward; settled in Spain where he became a Roman Catholic

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Alina Kabaeva – Russian gymnast

Jesse of Kakheti – Georgian prince of the Bagrationi dynasty, son of King Leon of Kakheti converted to Islam in the Service of the Safavid dynasty, but returned to Orthodox Christianity after his return to Georgia

Jesse of Kartli – Georgian prince of the Bagrationi dynasty (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

Alexander Kazembek – Russian Orientalist, historian and philologist of Azeri origin

Mathieu Kérékou – President of Benin (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

Chulpan Khamatova – Russian actress

Emir Kusturica – Serbian and Yugoslavian filmmaker and actor

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Imad ud-din Lahiz – prolific Islamic writer, preacher and Qur'anic translator

Dr. Nur Luke – Uyghur Bible translator

Fernão Lopes (soldier) – 16th-century Portuguese soldier in India who converted to Roman Catholicism

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Sake Dean Mahomed (born Sheikh Din Muhammad) – Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who introduced the Indian take-away curry house restaurant in Britain; first Indian to have written a book in the English language; converted to marry Jane Daly, an Irish Protestant, as it was illegal for a non-Protestant to marry a Protestant

Enrique de Malaca – Malay slave of Ferdinand Magellan, converted to Roman Catholicism after being purchased in 1511

Pinkan Mambo (born Pinkan Ratnasari Mambo) – Indonesian singer; converted in 2010; decision taken after admitting she studied various religions of the world and eventually dropped in awe of Jesus Christ

Fadhma Aït Mansour – mother of French writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche

Roy Marten (born Wicasksono Abdul Salam) – Indonesian actor whose family was converted to Roman Catholicism during his childhood but who converted later to Indonesian Orthodoxy in 1997

Abdul Masih – Indian indigenous missionary; ordained Anglican and Lutheran minister; often referred to as the most influential indigenous Christian to shape nineteenth-century Christian missions in India; religious author

Josef Mässrur (born Ghäsim Khan) – missionary to Chinese Turkestan with the Mission Union of Sweden

Carlos Menem – former President of Argentina; raised a Nusayri but converted to Roman Catholicism, a constitutional requirement for accessing the presidency until 1994

Mizse – last Palatine of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1290; born into a Muslim family in Tolna County in the Kingdom of Hungary; converted to Roman Catholicism

St. George El Mozahem – Coptic saint

Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa – born into a Muslim family; converted to Christianity as a child and later became an Archbishop in his home country of Malawi, as well as converting and baptizing his father, a former imam

Muhsin Muhammad – current American football player for the Carolina Panthers, raised in a Muslim household, later converted to Christianity

Paul Mulla – Turkish scholar and professor of Islamic Studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute

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Youcef Nadarkhani – Iranian Christian pastor who has been sentenced to death for apostasy

Diana Nasution – Indonesian singer, converted to Protestantism after marriage

Aurelius and Natalia (died 852) – Christian martyrs who were put to death during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba, and are counted among the Martyrs of Córdoba; Aurelius was the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. He was also secretly a follower of Christianity, as was his wife Natalia, who was also the child of a Muslim father.

Marina Nemat – Canadian author of Iranian descent and former political prisoner of the Iranian government; born into a Christian family, she converted to Islam in order to avoid execution but later reverted to Christianity

Ibrahim Njoya – Bamum king; back and forth conversions from Islam to Christianity

Nunilo and Alodia – 9th-century sisters recognized as Catholic saints and martyrs in Moorish Spain, executed for apostasy for converting to Christianity

Rashid Nurgaliyev – Russian politician and general convert to Russian Orthodoxy

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Malika Oufkir – Moroccan writer and daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir; she and her siblings are converts from Islam to Catholici; and she writes in her book, Stolen Lives, "we had rejected Islam, which had brought us nothing good, and opted for Catholicism instead"

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Shams Pahlavi – Iranian princess and the elder sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran

Hamid Pourmand – former Iranian army colonel and lay leader of the Jama'at-e Rabbani, the Iranian branch of the Assemblies of God church in Iran

Agni Pratistha – Indonesian actress, model and former beauty queen (elected Puteri Indonesia 2006), converted to Catholicism after marriage, although initially denied rumors of conversion

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Nabeel Qureshi – former Ahmadiyya Muslim; converted to Evangelical Christianity in 2005; has since become an internationally recognized apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

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Daud Rahbar – Pakistani scholar of Comparative religions, composer, short story writer, translator, philosopher, contributor to inter-civilization dialogue, musicologist, drummer, singer and guitarist

Abdul Rahman – Afghan convert to Christianity who escaped the death penalty because of foreign pressure

Brother Rachid – Moroccan Christian convert from Islam; hosts a weekly live call-in show on AL-Hayat channel

Majeed Rashid Mohammed – Kurdish Christian convert from Islam; established a network with former Kurdish Muslims with about 2,000 members today

Stefan Razvan – Gypsy prince who ruled Moldavia for six months in 1595

Dewi Rezer – Indonesian model of French descent; converted to Roman Catholicism

Emily Ruete (born Sayyida Salme) – Princess of Zanzibar and Oman

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Nazli Sabri – Queen consort of Egypt; converted to Catholicism in 1950 and took the name "Mary Elizabeth"

Kyai Sadrach – Indonesian missionary

Begum Samru – powerful lady of north India, ruling a large area from Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh

Lukman Sardi – Indonesian actor; converted to Christianity after marriage

Mohamed Alí Seineldín – former Argentine army colonel who participated in two failed coup attempts against the democratically elected governments of both President Raúl Alfonsín and President Carlos Menem in 1988 and 1990

Saint Serapion of Kozheozersky – former Muslim of Tartar ancestry who converted to Christianity and founded the Kozheozersky Monastery in northern Russia

The Sibirsky family – foremost of many Genghisid (Shaybanid) noble families formerly living in Russia

Bilquis Sheikh – Pakistani author and Christian missionary

Bashir Shihab II – Lebanese emir (prince) who ruled Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century; his family was Sunni Muslim; some of them converted to Christianity at the end of the 18th century

The Shihab family – prominent Lebanese noble family who originally belonged to Sunni Islam and converted to Christianity at the end of the 18th century

Walid Shoebat – American author and former member of the PLO

Nasir Siddiki – Canadian evangelist, author, and business consultant

Amir Sjarifuddin – Indonesian socialist leader who later became the prime minister of Indonesia during its National Revolution

Skanderbeg – Albanian military leader; was forcibly converted to Islam from Christianity, but reverted to Christianity later in life F

James Scurry – British soldier and statesman

Rudolf Carl von Slatin – Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan

Albertus Soegijapranata – born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies, to a Muslim courtier and his wife who later converted to Catholicism; the first native Indonesian bishop; known for his pro-nationalistic stance, often expressed as "100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian"

Patrick Sookhdeo – British Anglican canon

Maria Aurora von Spiegel (born Fatima) – Turkish mistress of Augustus II the Strong and the wife of a Polish noble

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Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal – two Turkish Christian converts who went on trial in 2006, on charges of "allegedly insulting 'Turkishness' and inciting religious hatred against Islam"

Hary Tanoesoedibjo – Indonesian politician and businessman

Maria Temryukovna – Circassian princess, and second wife to Ivan IV of Russia; born in a Muslim upbringing; baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church on 21 August 1561

Tabaraji of Ternate – Indonesian sultan; converted to Roman Catholicism after 1534 and baptised with the name Dom Manuel

Casilda of Toledo – daughter of a Muslim king of Toledo (called Almacrin or Almamun); became ill as a young woman and traveled to northern Iberia to partake of the healing waters of the shrine of San Vicente; when she was cured, she was baptized at Burgos; venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church

Aman Tuleyev – Russian governor of Kemerovo Oblast

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Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh (Arabic: عبيد الله بن جحش) – brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh, brother in law and first cousin of Muhammad and one of the male Sahaba (companions of the Prophet); he has been cited as one of the four monotheistic hanifs by Ibn Ishaq who converted to Christianity after his migration to Abyssinia

Udo Ulfkotte – German journalist who was born a Christian, became an atheist, then converted to Islam and finally converted back to Christianity

Utameshgaray of Kazan – Khan of Kazan Khanate; was forced to convert to Christianity following the Siege of Kazan

Laysan Utiasheva – Russian gymnast, convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

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George Weah – Liberian soccer player (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)

Sigi Wimala – Indonesian model and actress, converted to Catholicism after marriage

Ibrahim Tunggul Wulung – Indonesian evangelist and missionary

Wu'erkaixi – Uyghur dissident known for his leading role during the Tiananmen protests of 1989

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Muley Xeque (Arabic: مولاي الشيخ Mawlay al-Shaykh) – Moroccan prince, born in Marrakech in 1566; exiled in Spain, he converted to Roman Catholicism in Madrid and was known as Philip of Africa or Philip of Austria

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Yadegar Moxammat of Kazan – last khan of Kazan Khanate

Mosab Hassan Yousef – son of a Hamas leader

Ramzi Yousef – Al Qaeda member; the main participant in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and The Bojinka plot

Nania Kurniawati Yusuf – Indonesian singer, finalist of the first season of Indonesian Idol, 2004

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Zaida of Seville – born an Iberian Muslim; was forced to convert to Christianity; when Seville fell to the Almoravids, she fled to the protection of Alfonso VI of Castile, becoming his mistress, converting to Christianity and taking the baptismal name of Isabel

Zayd Abu Zayd – the last Almohad governor of Valencia, Spain; remained a loyal ally of James I; in 1236 he converted to Roman Catholicism, adopting the name of Vicente Bellvis, a fact which he kept secret until the fall of Valencia

Saye Zerbo – President of the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso)

References

List of converts to Christianity from Islam Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

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References