List of converts to Islam from Christianity

A

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor) – retired basketball player and the NBA's all-time leading scorer; converted from Christianity to The Nation of Islam and then to mainstream Sunni Islam

Akhenaton – French rapper and producer of French hip hop; born Philippe Fragiane; converted from Catholicism to Islam

Al-Najashi – African emperor

Mahershala Ali (born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore) – American actor

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., 1942-2016) – converted from Baptist to The Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam; American professional boxer (three-time world heavyweight champion), philanthropist and social activist

Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley – British soldier and peer

Ryan G. Anderson – former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda

Vladimir Arutyunian – failed assassin of George W. Bush, converted to Islam in prison

Farqad as-Sabakhi – Armenian Islamic preacher; formerly Christian; known for his knowledge of Judeo-Christian scriptures

Aminah Assilmi – American broadcast journalist formerly known as Janice Huff

B

Kristiane Backer – German television presenter, television journalist and author residing in London

Abdullah Beg of Kartli – Georgian convert to Islam; served as a viceroy of Kartli for the Iranian Shah, Nadir in 1737; claimant to the kingship of Kartli

Józef Bem – Polish and Hungarian general; historically defined as a national hero within Poland and Hungary; escaped to the Ottoman Empire where he converted to Islam and took up the name Murad Pasha

Ibrahim Bey – Egyptian Mamluk of Georgian Christian origins

Danny Blum – German footballer

Wojciech Bobowski – raised Protestant; Polish musician; translator of the Bible into Ottoman Turkish

Omar Bongo – Gabonese, President of Gabon

Willie Brigitte – French convert to Islam who associated with al-Qaeda in Pakistan; possibly involved in a plot to conduct a terrorist operation in Australia

C

Torquato Cardilli – Italian ambassador, converted from Catholicism; served as ambassador to Italy in Albania (1991), Tanzania (1993), Saudi Arabia (2000) and Angola (2005)

André Carson – former Baptist, second Muslim to serve the United States Congress

Count Cassius – Visigothic aristocrat who founded the Banu Qasi dynasty of Muladi rulers

Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; 21 July 1948) – British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, education philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam

Ashley Chin (Muslim Belal) – English actor, screenwriter, spoken word performance poet and former rapper

Chrisye – Indonesian singer; changed his name to Chrismansyah Rahadi from Christian Rahadi

Emilia Contessa – Indonesian actress, singer and politician (from Islam to Christianity back to Islam; known as Nur Indah Cintra Sukma Munsyi)

Jerôme Courtailler – one of two French brothers convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists

D

Mujahid Dokubo-Asari – founder and leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force

Dragut – seaman of Greek origin He was captured and taken prisoner by the corsairs in his youth and had converted to Islam.

E

Isabelle Eberhardt – from Lutheran Christianity, 19th-century explorer and writer

Abdullah el-Faisal – Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, and Americans

Wadih el-Hage – former Al-Qaeda member who was convicted for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings

Keith Ellison – American, Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, converted from Catholicism

Elpidius – Byzantine aristocrat and governor of Sicily

Yahiya Emerick – American Muslim scholar, President of the Islamic Foundation of North America, converted from Protestantism

Erekle I of Kakheti – Georgian convert to Islam who ruled the kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli

Yusuf Estes – former preacher and federal prison chaplain, converted from Protestantism

Everlast – rapper from the Irish-American hip-hop group House of Pain, converted from Catholicism

Gazi Evrenos – Byzantine convert to Islam

F

Shah Shahidullah Faridi – writer of German descent born to a Christian family

Firouz – Armenian Christian convert to Islam who served as a spy for Bohemund during the Siege of Antioch

Myriam Francois-Cerrah – journalist who converted from Roman Catholicism in 2003

Radu cel Frumos – younger brother of Vlad Ţepeş (Dracula) and prince of the principality of Wallachia, who converted from Catholicism

G

Adam Gadahn (born Adam Pearlman) – al-Qaeda English language spokesman; home-schooled Christian

Ghazan – seventh ruler of the Ilkhanate division of the Mongol Empire

Khalid Gonçalves – Portuguese American actor and musician (born Paul Pires Gonçalves), converted from Catholicism

Cristian Gonzáles – Uruguayan-born Indonesian footballer

Charles Greenlee – American jazz trombonist

H

Sir Archibald Hamilton, 5th Baronet – distinguished British convert to Islam

Omar Hammami – American-born member of the Somali Islamist paramilitary group al-Shabaab; known as Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki

Hatice Refia Hanım – mother of Tevfik Fikret

Joel Hayward – British scholar, author and poet

Muhammad Robert Heft – Canadian activist and writer

Murad Wilfred Hofmann – NATO official, converted from Catholicism

Knud Holmboe – Danish journalist and explorer who converted from Catholicism

I

Silma Ihram – formerly a born-again Baptist; Australian pioneer of Muslim education in the West; founder and former school Principal of the Noor Al Houda Islamic College; campaigner for racial tolerance; author

Iyasu V – Ethiopian emperor

J

Ibn Jazla – 11th-century physician and Christian convert who later wrote to refute doctrines of Christianity

Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) – Michael Jackson's elder brother and one of the original former members of The Jackson 5

Sarah Joseph – commentator on women's issues and founder of emel magazine, converted from Catholicism

K

Abdul Kadir – former Guyanese politician, convicted of the 2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot

David Benjamin Keldani – former Catholic priest who converted to Islam and changed his name to Abd ul-Aḥad Dāwūd

Nuh Ha Mim Keller – Islamic scholar who converted from Catholicism to agnosticism to Sunni Islam

Allahverdi Khan – general and statesman of Georgian origin who was Christian

Mirza Malkam Khan – Iranian Armenian proponent of Freemasonry who was active during the period leading up to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

John Tzelepes Komnenos – allied himself with the Seljuks against his uncle; Greek convert

L

Colleen LaRose – identifies herself as "Jihad Jane"; American citizen charged with terrorism-related crimes

Leo of Tripoli – Byzantine Greek renegade who freed 4000 Muslim prisoners while attacking the Byzantine city of Thessalonica

Samantha Lewthwaite – also known as Sherafiyah Lewthwaite or the White Widow, one of the United Kingdom's most wanted terrorism suspects

Germaine Lindsay – one of the suicide terrorists in the 7 July 2005 London bombings in which 52 people were murdered

John Walker Lindh – American insurgent, known as the "American Taliban"; converted from Catholicism

Alexander Litvinenko – former FSB officer; converted to Islam on his deathbed

Fernão Lopes – 16th-century Portuguese soldier; tortured and disfigured by Christians for siding with Muslims

Badr al-Din Lu'lu' – Armenian convert to Islam and successor to the Zangid rulers of Mosul

Vincenzo Luvineri – American rapper and the lyricist behind the Philadelphia underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks; converted from Catholicism

M

Daniel Maldonado – American Islamist convicted in the United States on charges of training with al-Qaida in East Africa; raised Catholic

Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood – British author, converted from Protestantism

Ingrid Mattson – Canadian scholar and current president of the Islamic Society of North America (2006); converted from Catholicism

Köse Mihal – Byzantine renegade; accompanied Osman al-Ghazi in his ascent to power and converted to Islam

Mleh, Prince of Armenia – Armenian convert to Islam from Catholicism; eighth lord of Armenian Cilicia

Preacher Moss – American comedian who converted from Baptist Christianity; American comedian and comedy writer

Matthew Saad Muhammad (formerly Matthew Franklin) – former boxer, converted from Catholicism

John Allen Muhammad – convicted of perpetrating the Beltway sniper attacks with his partner, Lee Boyd Malvo, in which 17 people were murdered

Peter Murphy – vocalist of the goth/rock group Bauhaus; converted from Catholicism

Ibrahim Muteferrika (original name not known) – from Unitarian Christianity, an early example of a Muslim publisher and printer

N

Adam Neuser – German Lutheran pastor who criticized the doctrine of the trinity and was consequently imprisoned

Tech N9ne – American rapper born to a Christian mother who converted to Islam during adulthood

O

Öljaitü – ruler of the Ilkhanate dynasty

Occhiali – Italian convert

Omar Pasha (1806–1871) – Ottoman general, born Orthodox

P

José Padilla – also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah; US citizen from Brooklyn, New York; convicted in federal court of aiding terrorists; also known as "the dirty bomber"

Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha – born to a Christian Croatian

Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha – Ottoman Grand Vizier

Koca Yusuf Pasha – Georgian Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire who also served as the governor of Peloponnese

Damat Hasan Pasha – Ottoman Grand Vizier He converted to Islam early on at the Enderun School through the Devşirme Christian child tax system.

Moralı Enişte Hasan Pasha – Greek Ottoman Grand Vizier

Judar Pasha – conqueror of the Songhai Empire

Raghib Pasha – Greek Ottoman politician who served as Prime Minister of Egypt; converted to Islam from Christianity

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

Vyacheslav Polosin – Russian academic and former priest of the Russian Orthodox Church

Poncke Princen – Dutch soldier and human rights activist; converted from Catholicism

R

Ilie II Rareş – prince of Moldavia

Richard Colvin Reid – "shoe bomber"; convicted terrorist

Murat Reis or Jan Janszoon – Dutch Barbary corsair who was an admiral for the Republic of Salé; converted from Christianity; became a very active Muslim missionary who tried to convert his fellow Christian Europeans

Yvonne Ridley – British journalist, from Anglicanism; converted after being kidnapped and released by the Taliban

Robert of St. Albans – English templar knight who converted to Islam from Christianity in 1185 and led an army for Saladin against the Crusaders in Jerusalem

Baron Omar Rolf von Ehrenfels – baptised as Rolf Werner Leopold von Ehrenfels; changed his name; prominent Austrian personality; decided to convert to Islam around 1926

S

Salman the Persian – convert from Christianity; previously Zoroastrian

Ahmed Santos – Filipino, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement; converted from Catholicism

Ratna Sarumpaet – Indonesian stagewright, director, and actress

Mario Scialoja – Italian ambassador; President of the World Muslim League

Betty Shabazz – wife of Malcolm X; former Methodist

Zaid Shakir – American Muslim; former Baptist who converted to Sunni Islam; speaker, intellectual, author, Islamic scholar, and co-founder of Zaytuna College in the United States

Omar Sharif – Egyptian actor who converted from Catholicism

Ahmad Faris Shidyaq – Lebanese scholar, writer and journalist; Maronite convert to Islam

Mimar Sinan – Ottoman architect; converted to Islam and trained as an officer of the Janissary corps

Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (1506–1578) – Ottoman statesman; born Orthodox, converted through devşirme

Daniel Streich – Swiss military instructor, community council member and a former member of Swiss People's Party who led the campaign for the national ban on the construction of new minarets

Kösem Sultan – powerful and influential woman in the Ottoman Empire

Handan Sultan – mother of Ottoman sultan Ahmed I

T

Abu Tammam – 9th-century Arab poet born to Christian parents

Tekuder – Mongol leader of the Ilkhan empire; formerly a Nestorian Christian

Danny Thompson – English double bass player; converted from Catholicism

Joseph Thomas – Australian convert, acquitted of terrorism charges, placed under a control order under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, currently pending retrial

Mihnea Turcitul – Prince (Voivode) of Walachia; converted from Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Anselm Turmeda – Majorcan writer, Franciscan friar

Mike Tyson – American boxer and Sunni Muslim

U

Ismael Urbain – French journalist and interpreter

Abu Usamah – American-born Imam of Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, UK; accused of preaching messages of hate towards non-Muslims in a UK television documentary

V

Bryant Neal Vinas – participated in and supported al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the US, and helped al-Qaeda plan a bomb attack on the LIRR

Rudolf Carl von Slatin – Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan; later reverted to Catholicism

W

Siraj Wahaj – former Baptist, African-American imam, noted for his efforts to eliminate Brooklyn's drug problems

Alexander Russell Webb – former Presbyterian, American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the US in the Philippines

Suhaib Webb – American Islamic activist and speaker

Danny Williams – British boxer

Sonny Bill Williams – New Zealand rugby union Rep player (All Blacks) and NZ representative Rugby League player (Kiwis)

G. Willow Wilson – American comics writer, prose author, essayist, and journalist

Timothy Winter – British Islamic scholar, lecturer in Islamic studies in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge

X

Malcolm X – American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist; converted from Christianity to the Nation of Islam and later to mainstream Sunni Islam

Y

Khalid Yasin – Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute, and a Shaykh currently residing in Australia

Felixia Yeap – former model and Catholic of Chinese heritage; converted to Islam in 2013

James Yee – previously Lutheran and former US Army Muslim chaplain

Mohammad Yousuf – Pakistani cricketer; known for holding the world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year; converted from Catholicism

Hamza Yusuf – American convert from Greek Orthodox to Sunni Islam; co-founder of the Zaytuna College