List of Converted to Islam

From Abrahamic religions

From Christianity

From Catholicism
Keith Ellison American, raised Catholic, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress
Keith Ellison American, raised Catholic, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress

* Torquato Cardilli – Italian ambassador.
* Muriel Degauque – Belgian suicide bomber
* Keith Ellison – American, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress
* Roger Garaudy – French philosopher, before converting to Islam Marxist and member of the French Communist Party, who denies the holocaust ever taking place.
* Murad Wilfred Hofmann – NATO official
* Knud Holmboe – Danish journalist and explorer.
* Nuh Ha Mim Keller – from Catholicism to agnosticism to Sufism, Islamic scholar.
* John Walker Lindh – the American Taliban

Raised Roman Catholic, John Walker Lindh later converted to Islam, joined the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan fighting against the Northern Alliance.
Raised Roman Catholic, John Walker Lindh later converted to Islam, joined the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan fighting against the Northern Alliance.

* Vincenzo Luvineri – American rapper and the lyricist behind the Philadelphia underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks.
* Ingrid Mattson – Canadian scholar and current president of the Islamic Society of North America (2006)
* Matthew Saad Muhammad (formerly Matthew Franklin) – former boxer.
* Peter Murphy – vocalist of the rock group Bauhaus.
* Poncke Princen – Dutch soldier, later human rights activist.
* Radu cel Frumos – was the younger brother of Vlad ?epe? (Dracula) and prince of the principality of Wallachia.
* Ahmed Santos – Filipino, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative
* Danny Thompson – English double bass player.
* Mohammad Yousuf – Pakistani cricketer. Known for holding the world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year.
* Omar Sharif – Academy Award-nominated Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films.

From Protestantism

* Ryan G. Anderson – former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda
* Isabelle Eberhardt – from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
* Yahiya Emerick – American Muslim scholar, president of the Islamic Foundation of North America.
* Yusuf Estes – former preacher and federal prison chaplain.
Yusuf Estes, a convert to Islam, is the National Muslim Chaplain for American Muslims.
Yusuf Estes, a convert to Islam, is the National Muslim Chaplain for American Muslims.
* St. John Philby – Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence operative; converted from Anglicanism.
* Yvonne Ridley – British journalist, from Anglicanism. She converted after being kidnapped and released by the Taliban.

From other or unspecified denomination

* Atik Sinan – Ottoman architect
* Thomas J. Abercrombie – photographer
* Éric Abidal (changed his name to Bilal) – French soccer player , converted to Islam after marriage.
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) – retired basketball player & the NBA’s all-time leading scorer
* Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) – retired basketball player
* Tariq Abdul-Wahad (Olivier Saint-Jean) – originally from France, former basketball player for the Mavericks and Kings
* Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) – former NFL football player
* Ivan Aguéli (Johan Agelii) – famous Swedish painter.
* Dawud Wharnsby Ali (David Wharnsby) – Canadian singer/poet.
* Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), to The Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam to Sufism, famous boxer
* Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley – British soldier and peer.
* Nicolas Anelka – French football player
* Yasin Abu Bakr (Lennox Philip) – of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006
* 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.
* David Belfield – American, fled to Iran after assassinating Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident.
Muhammad Ali- a convert to Islam.
Muhammad Ali- a convert to Islam.
* Józef Bem – Polish-Hungarian general, considered a national hero of Poland.
* Mohammed Knut Bernström – Swedish ambassador to Venezuela (1963-1969), Spain (1973-1976) and Morocco (1976-1983)
* Art Blakey – American Jazz musician
* Claude Alexandre de Bonneval – French noble.
* 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.
* 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.
* Dolores “LaLa” Brooks – American musician.
* Count Cassius- Visigothic aristocrat who founded the Banu Qasi dynasty of Muladi rulers.
* David Chappelle – comedian and television star
* Benjamin Chavis – controversial former head of the NAACP; joined the Nation of Islam
* Jimmy Cliff – Jamaican reggae musician

Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae musician
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae musician

* Aukai Collins – fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book
* Jerôme Courtailler – one of two French brothers convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists
* Ian Dallas – Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi – sufi shaykh of Scottish origins.
* C. Jack Ellis – Mayor of Macon, Georgia
Chris Eubank British boxer
Chris Eubank British boxer

* Chris Eubank – British boxer

* Sultaana Freeman – sued the state of Florida for niqab restrictions.
* Adam Yahiye Gadahn – spokesperson for Al-Qaeda; on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list
* George XI of Kartli – Saffavid commander.
* René Guénon – French Author in the field of metaphysics
* Ryan Harris- football player for the Denver Broncos
* David Hicks-Australian former rodeo rider, recently released from detention in Adelaide.
* Bernard Hopkins – American boxer
* Ahmed Huber- Swiss Neo-nazi journalist, holocaust denier and terrorist supporter
* Silma Ihram – 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/
* Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) – former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson.
* Sarah Joseph – commentator on women’s issues and founder of emel magazine.
* Michael Muhammad Knight – American novelist, writer, and journalist.
* Rustie Lee – British television chef and celebrity.

Richard Colvin Reid known as the “shoe bomber” was a convert to Islam.
Richard Colvin Reid known as the “shoe bomber” was a convert to Islam.
Malcolm X- famous Muslim convert and civil rights leader
Malcolm X- famous Muslim convert and civil rights leader
Hamza Yusuf, head of the Zaytuna Institute
Hamza Yusuf, head of the Zaytuna Institute
Timothy Winter is a prominent British lecturer at the University of Cambridge
Timothy Winter is a prominent British lecturer at the University of Cambridge
American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines, Mohammad Webb was a convert.
American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines, Mohammad Webb was a convert.

* Germaine Lindsay – participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings
* Alexander Litvinenko – former Russian spy converted to Islam on his deathbed.
* Lee Boyd Malvo – convicted of capital murder and arrested for the Beltway sniper attacks, for being involved in 16 murders and 7 additional attempted murders.
* Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood – British author.
* Iyasu V – Ethiopian emperor.

* Jacques-Francois Menou – French general under Napoleon I of France.
* Bruno Metsu – French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup
* Daniel Moore – poet
* Preacher Moss – American comedian and comedy writer.
* Sheila Musaji – founder of The American Muslim magazine.
* Ibrahim Muteferrika (original name not known) – From Unitarian Christianity, an early example of a Muslim publisher and printer.
* John Nelson – first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim.
* Prince Buster, Jamaican singer and producer.
* Queen Noor of Jordan (formerly Lisa Najeeb Halaby)
* Omar Pasha – Ottoman general. Converted from Serbian Orthodoxy.
* Emin Pasha – physician, naturalist, and Egyptian governor.
* Judar Pasha – conqueror of the Songhai Empire.
* Bilal Philips – Islamic scholar and author
* Marmaduke Pickthall – famous translator of the Quran.
* William Abdullah Quilliam – poet, ambassador & journalist.
* Ilie II Rare? – prince of Moldavia.
* Ahmad Rash?d – Emmy award-winning sportscaster (mostly with NBC Sports) and former American football wide receiver.
* Richard Colvin Reid – shoe bomber (convicted terrorist)
* Franck Ribéry- a French soccer player. His name after he converted to Islam is Bilal.
* Busta Rhymes – Music artist, born to Rastafari parents
* 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.
* Scarface – American rapper
* Mario Scialoja – Italian ambassador and President of the World Muslim League.
* Betty Shabazz – wife of Malcolm X; former Methodist.
* Zaid Shakir – African-American Muslim speaker and intellectual in the United States.
* Rudolf Carl von Slatin – Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan.
* Suleiman Pasha – French-born Egyptian commander.
* Joe Tex – soul singer and recording artist.
* Joseph Thomas – Australian convert, acquitted of terrorism charges, placed under a control order under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, currently pending retrial.
* Richard Thompson – British musician, best known for his guitar playing and songwriting.
* Ahmad Thomson – British barrister and writer and also a member of the Murabitun movement.
* Top Topham – rock guitarist from England.
* Gabriele Torsello – Italian freelance photojournalist based in London who was abducted in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
* Philippe Troussier – French, former football player & trainer of a Japanese football team
* Mihnea Turcitul – was a Prince (Voivode) of Walachia. Converted from Eastern Orthodox Chrisitianity.
* 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.
* Siraj Wahaj – African-American Imam, noted for his efforts to eliminate Brooklyn’s drug problems.
* Danny Williams – British boxer
* Malcolm X – American, from Christianity to Nation of Islam to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader.

* Khalid Yasin – Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute, and a Shaykh currently residing in Australia.
* James Yee – former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain.
* Hamza Yusuf – American convert from Greek Orthodox; head of the Zaytuna Institute.
* Alexander Russell Webb – American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines.
* Suhaib Webb – American Islamic activist and speaker.
* Abdulla Webster – former Sergeant First Class in the United States Army who refused to deploy to Iraq.
* John Whitehead – an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.
* Timothy Winter – prominent British Islamic thinker and scholar, and a lecturer in Islamic studies in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.

* Za?anos Pasha – one of the prominent military commanders of Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) and a lala, at once an advisor, mentor, tutor, councilors, protector, for the sultan.
* Mohammed Zakariya – an American master of Arabic calligraphy, best known for his work on the popular Eid U.S. postage stamp.
* Clement Lindley Wragge. A British born meteorologist who later moved to New Zealand.

From Judaism

* Abdullah ibn Salam – 7th century sahabi said to have been a rabbi of aristocratic stock.
* Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey (Yale Singer) – a pioneer in the development of Islamic culture in the United States.
* Rashid al-Din – 13th century Persian physician
* Jemima Khan (Jemima Goldsmith) – ex-wife of cricketer Imran Khan, English socialite, a UK ambassador for UNICEF, and former girlfriend of Hugh Grant.
* Jacob Frank – publicly converted to Islam in 1757 and to Christianity in Poland but actually presented himself as the Messiah of a syncretic derivation of Shabettai Zevi’s Messianism.
* Leila Mourad – Egyptian singer and actress who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s.
* Lev Nussimbaum – prolific author on the topics of Middle East and Russian history; the Nazi propaganda ministry included his works on their list of “excellent books for German minds” before discovering he was an ethnic Jew.
* Jacob Querido – 17th century successor of the self-proclaimed Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
* Sarmad – 17th century mystical poet and sufi saint, arrived from Persia to India, beheaded for assumed heresy by Aurungzebe.
* Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) – Viennese journalist who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations
* Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari – 9th century Persian scholar physician (a hakim), who produced the first encyclopedia of medicine.
* 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.
* Mubarak Shah – head of the ulus of the Chagatai Khanate (1252-1260, March-September 1266).
* Tarmashirin – Khan of the Chagatai Khanate following Duwa Timur.

From Hinduism

* Salma Arastu – Indian artist living in North America.
* 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.
* Pir Mangho – 14th century Sufi pir.
* A. R. Rahman (formerly A. S. Dileep Kumar) – famous Indian music composer
* Parameswara – Malay prince of Palembang Hindu descent from Srivijaya that founded the Sultanate of Malacca around 1402.
* 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 – renowned Indian film actress from Bengal.
* Vilayil Fazila – popular Mappila songs singer from Kerala.

From Sikhism

* Ubaidullah Sindhi – religious leader and political activist.

Other

From Paganism

* David Myatt – from Paganism, former Neo-Nazi-activist

See also: List of Sahaba

From non-religious to Islam

* 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)
* 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

* Abd al Malik – birth name Régis Fayette-Mikano – French rapper of Congolese origins.
* Mumia Abu-Jamal – journalist, Black Panther, political activist, convicted murderer.
* B.G. Knocc Out – American west coast rapper.
* Hasan Akbar (born Mark Fidel Kools) – American sentenced to death for the murder of two fellow soldiers during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
* Kevin Barrett – university lecturer and member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
* Maurice Béjart – French choreographer.
* Robert “Kool” Bell – musician.
* Ronald Bell – musician.
* Mohammed Knut Bernström – Swedish ambassador.
* Khaled Edward Blair – British barrister, later married Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of Jordan.
* Bizzy Bone – American rapper.
* Omar Bongo – Gabonese, President of Gabon.
* Charles Brooks, Jr. – converted while serving a sentence for murder; first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
* H. Rap Brown – civil rights activisit.
* Titus Burckhardt – Swiss writer and scholar.
* Amir Butler- Author, Engineer and Islamic activist.
* Kérim Chatty- Swedish bodybuilding stuntman who was once suspected of attempted hijacking. The preliminary inquiry was dropped.
* Common – American rapper.
* Jill Courtney – Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people.
* Robert D. Crane – former Presidential advisor and ambassador.
* Ice Cube – Gangsta rapper and actor.
* Bob Denard – French mercenary.
* Jeffrey Mark Deskovic – served 15-year wrongful imprisonment sentence.
* Isabelle Eberhardt – explorer and writer.
* Baron omar Rolf von Ehrenfels – Austrian anthropologist and orientalist.
* Everlast – Irish-American rapper and singer-songwriter.
* Alys Faiz – human rights and peace activist; converted at the time of her marriage to Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
* Philippe Fragione – French rapper and producer of French hip hop.
* Christian Ganczarski- Head of “al Qaeda in Europe”.
* Philippe Grenier – (1865-1944) French doctor, first and only muslim MP in France.
* Gigi Gryce – American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator.
* Walt Hazzard – former NBA player.
* David Hicks – convicted Australian terrorist.
* Lim Yew Hock – Singapore’s second Chief Minister from 1956 to 1959.[216]
* Craig Hodges – former NBA player.
* Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) – Islamic activist, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
* Abdullah Ibrahim – South African Jazz musician.
* Umar Islam – one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom.[220]
* Tiara Jacquelina – Malaysion actress.
* Ahmad Jamal – Jazz pianist.
* Jan Janszoon – Dutch pirate.
* Larry Johnson – retired American professional basketball player.
* Gustave-Henri Jossot – French caricaturist, illustrator and Orientalist painter.
* Muhammad Khodabandeh – eighth Ilkhaid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316.
* Vladimir Khodov – leader of the Beslan school hostage crisis- converted in prison.
* Abd al Haqq Kielan – Swedish cleric.
* Ghostface Killah – member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
* Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan – born Yvette Blanche Labrousse, Miss France 1930, wife of Aga Khan III.
* Yusef Lateef – American Jazz musician.
* Johann von Leers – advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his anti-Semitic polemics.
* Gary Legenhausen – American philosopher and writer.
* Brandon Mayfield – American attorney-at-law, was erroneously linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
* MC Ren – American rapper and hip-hop producer.
* Ali Shaheed Muhammad – member of A Tribe Called Quest.
* Idris Muhammad – American jazz musician.
* John Allen Muhammad – convicted serial killer, known as the Beltway Sniper.
* Anthony Mundine – Australian Boxer.
* Abdul Alim Musa – Muslim activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C.
* Susanne Osthoff – German archaeologist who had worked in Iraq since 1991 and had been taken captive there for three weeks.
* José Padilla – the respondent in Rumsfeld v. Padilla currently on trial as an alleged al-Qaida operative, converted while in prison for aggravated assault.
* Robin Padilla – Filipino actor.
* Sokollu Mehmet Pa?a – Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent.
* Christopher Paul (aka Paul Kenyatta Laws aka Abdulmalek Kenyatta) – American citizen, alleged member of al-Qaeda.
* 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.[220]
* 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 December 22 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.[262][263]
* 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 and convicted murderer.
Forced conversions
Francis Bok a Sudanese ex-slave forced to convert to Islam
Francis Bok a Sudanese ex-slave forced to convert to Islam

* Anusim of Meshhad, Jewish community forced on pain of death to convert in 1839. Most continued Jewish practices in secret and many of their descendents returned to Judaism in the early 20th century.
* Francis Bok – Sudanese-American activist, from Christianity; later returned to his Christian faith.
* Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig – forced to convert at gunpoint by terrorists of the Holy Jihad Brigades.
* The Janissaries, originally children removed forcibly from their dhimmi parents under the devshirme system in the Ottoman Empire.
* Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin – 12th century Jewish philosopher, forcibly converted by Almohads, lived as crypto-Jew.
* The Nuba population of the town of Lobonok, Sudan, forced to convert by a goverment-backed Muslim militia in 1995. A number of locals were murdered by the militia for refusing to convert.
* Sabbatai Zevi – convert from Judaism, 17th century mystic, pseudo-Messiah and the self-proclaimed “King of Jews”. Converted ostensibly of his own free will as “Aziz Mehmed Effendi”, in September 15, 1666 while in prison. Although, some speculate that he may have been executed for treason had he not converted,[145] Muslim authorities were opposed to his death.[278] He lived his remaining ten years as a public Muslim favoured by the Sultan. Some of his Sabbatean followers became the Donmeh, who behave externally as Muslims.
* The Christians of Tunis, forced to convert en masse in 1159.