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Part of a series of articles on Islam     Image:Mosque02.svg History of Islam

Beliefs and practices

Oneness of God Profession of Faith Prayer • Fasting Charity • Pilgrimage

Major figures

Muhammad Household of Muhammad Prophets of Islam Companions of Muhammad

Texts & Laws

Qur'an • Sunnah • Hadith Fiqh • Sharia • Theology

Major branches

Sunni • Shi'a

Societal aspects

Academics • History Philosophy • Science Art • Architecture • Cities Calendar • Holidays • Women Leaders • Politics • Islamism

See also

Vocabulary of Islam This box: view • talk • edit</div>

This is a list of notable people who have converted to Islam sometime during their lives.

Contents 1 Politics 2 Sports 3 Religious Scholars 4 Scholars 5 Philosophy 6 Media, Arts and Entertainment 7 Lawyers 8 Society 9 Science 10 Military Officers 11 Militants 12 Crimes 12.1 Terrorism related 12.1.1 Suicide attackers 12.1.2 Convicted of terrorism-related offenses 12.1.3 Terrorist suspects 12.2 Other crimes 13 See also 14 References

[edit] Politics

• Khaled Edward Blair - English barrister, married to Princess Badiya of Jordan
• Jean-Bédel Bokassa - Central African, from Catholicism, President and Emperor of the Central African Republic (later reconverted to Catholicism)
• Omar Bongo - Gabonese, President of Gabon
• Keith Ellison - American, from Catholicism, Representative from Minnesota's 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to Congress
• Murad Wilfred Hofmann - from Catholic Christianity, NATO official
• Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) - Islamic activist
• Iyasu V - Ethiopian, former Emperor of Ethiopia
• Mathieu Kérékou - Beninese, from Christianity, President of Benin (later reconverted to Christianity)
• Johann von Leers - advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his anti-Semitic polemics.<ref>Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)</ref> <ref>The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee (1997, ISBN 0-316-51959-6)</ref><ref>Behind the Egyptian Sphinx: Nasser's strange bedfellows; prelude to World War III? by Irving Sedar and Harold J. Greenberg (Philadelphia, Chilton Co., 1960)</ref>
• David Myatt - from Paganism, Neo-Nazi-activist [1]
• El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X, Malcolm Little) - American, from Christianity to NOI to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader.
• Apisai Tora - Fijian politician
• David Musa Pidcock - Founder of Islamic Party of Britain

[edit] Sports

• Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - American, from Christianity, former NFL football player
• Ahmad Rashad (Bobby Moore) - American, former NFL football player
• Ahmed Santos - American publicist & former boxer
• Anthony Mundine - Australian, from Christianity, boxer and former rugby player
• Bernard Hopkins - boxer
• Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup
• Chris Eubank - British boxer
• Danny Williams - British boxer
• Dwight Muhammad Qawi - boxer
• Franck Ribery - French football player, currently plays for Marseille
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player & the NBA's all-time leading scorer
• Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - American, from Christianity, retired basketball player
• Matthew Saad Muhammad - from Catholicism, former boxer
• Mike Tyson American, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world
• Mohammad Yousuf (Yousuf Youhana) - Pakistani, from Christianity, cricket player
• Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), American, from Christianity to NOI to Sunni Islam to Sufism [2], retired boxer
• Mustafa Hamsho - boxer
• Nicolas Anelka - French football player
• Philippe Troussier - French, former football player & trainer of a Japanese football team
• Rasheed Wallace - American basketball player

[edit] Religious Scholars

• Abudul-Ahad Dawud (David Benjamin Keldani) - from Catholicism, former Roman Catholic priest of the Uniate-Chaldean sect scholar from Harvard & a former deacon of United Methodist church
• Abdul-Ahad Omar (Gary Miller) - from Christianity, former priest & missionary administration of the Committee on Relations with Public Associations
• Jacob Querido - from Judaism, successor to Shabbetai Tzvi
• Abu Yahya (Jerald F. Dirks) - from Christianity, Hollis
• Shabbetai Tzvi - from Judaism, claimed to be messiah
• Umar Faruq Abd-Allah - from Protestantism, Islamic scholar
• Yusuf Estes - from Christianity, former pastor & prison chaplain

[edit] Scholars

• Hamid Algar - British professor at the University of California, Berkeley, expert in the Ja'fari school of thought & Iranian civilization
• Aminah Assilmi - from Southern Baptist Christianity, scholar & director of the International Union of Muslim Women
• 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
• 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
• Maimonides - Jewish philosopher, theologian, and physician forced to convert to Islam under pain of death during the Cordoba massacre of 1148.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 100</ref>
• Martin Lings - from Protestantism to Sufism
• Ingrid Mattson - Canadian scholar
• Thomas McElwain - (disputed) from Baptist Christianity, former minister, a Professor of History & Comparative religion. NOTE: He still consiters himself a baptist
• Bilal Philips - from Christianity, Islamic scholar & author
• Muhammad Pickthall (Marmaduke Pickthall) - from Christianity, a translator of the Qur'an
• Zaid Shakir - Islamic scholar
• Timothy J. Winter - lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge
• Khalid Yasin - American, from Christianity, Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute (ITI)
• Hamza Yusuf - from Orthodox Christianity - Islamic scholar

[edit] Philosophy

• Titus Burckhardt - German Swiss philosopher, historian & mystic
• Roger Garaudy - French philosopher & writer
• Sheikh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon) - French, from Catholicism to Sufism, philosopher

[edit] Media, Arts and Entertainment

• Ali Bey al-Abbasi - writer, explorer (disputed)
• Muhammed al-Ahari - American, from Christianity, essayist
• Muhammad Asad - from Judaism, writer
• Amir Butler - Australian, a Salafi author
• David Chappelle - comedian & television star
• Ian Dallas - writer
• Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
• Everlast - American, singer/songwriter
• Knud Holmboe - 20th century Danish journalist & explorer
• Abdullah Ibrahim (A. J. Brand) - South African pianist & composer
• Ice Cube - Rapper & Actor
• Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) - British, from Greek Orthodox Christianity, musician & singer
• Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) - former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson
• Maryam Jameelah - from Reform Judaism, essayist, poet, journalist & author
• Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood - British, from Protestant Christianity, author
• Daniel Moore - from Christianity, poet
• Mos Def - American rapper & actor
• Lev Nussimbaum - from Judaism, writer
• Harry St. John Philby - from Anglicanism, Arabist, explorer, writer & British colonial office intelligence operative
• William Abdullah Quilliam - from Christianity, poet, solicitor, ambassador & journalist
• A. R. Rahman ( A.S. Dileep Kumar) - Indian, from Hinduism, music film composer and director
• Yvonne Ridley - British journalist, converted from Anglicanism after being kidnapped by the Taliban.<ref> "Yvonne Ridley: From captive to convert", By Hannah Bayman, BBC News (online), 21 September, 2004</ref>
• Stephen Schwartz - Jewish born, Protestant mother, Sufi neoconservative journalist
• Kamala Suraiya - Indian, from Hinduism, writer
• Alexander Russell Webb - American, from Presbyterian Christianity, 19th Century U.S. journalist
• Michael Wolfe - writer & documentarist
• Dawud Wharnsby Ali - Canadian Singer/poet, from Christianity
• scarface - rapper, producer, from Christianity
• Danny Thompson - Musician
• Richard Thompson - Musician
• Yahya Birt - Journalist and son of former BBC Director General John Birt
• Sarah Joseph - Commentator on women's issues and editor of emel magazine

[edit] Lawyers

Brandon Mayfield - U.S. attorney-at-law with a practice in Washington County, Oregon

[edit] Society

• Jemima Goldsmith - British, from Judaism, socialite & ex-wife of Imran Khan
• Ayesha Sultana (Sharmila Tagore) - Bangladeshi-Indian, from Hinduism, Bollywood actress, converted to marry Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi

[edit] Science

• Jeffrey Lang - American, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas
• Susanne Osthoff - German archaeologist & former hostage in Iraq

[edit] Military Officers

• Mehemet Ali - German-born Ottoman general
• Józef Bem - Polish-Hungarian general
• Claude Alexandre de Bonneval - French-born Austrian general
• Jacques-Francois Menou - French general, governor of Egypt
• Omer Pasha - From Serbian Orthodoxy, Bosnian general
• Suleiman Pasha - French-born Egyptian general
• Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Austrian lietenant and British colonial administrator (conversion nominal)

[edit] Militants

• Aukai Collins - Hawaiian American, fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book [3]
• Bob Denard - French mercenary
• The Portland Seven - Jeffrey Leon Battle, Patrice Lumumba Ford and October Lewis
• Muriel Degauque - a Belgian suicide bomber that targeted a U.S. military convoy in Iraq [4] [5]

[edit] Crimes

[edit] Terrorism related

See also religious conversion and terrorism.

[edit] Suicide attackers

The following converts died in the commission of suicide attacks against civilians:

• Jamal Lindsay - participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings [6] [7] [8]

[edit] Convicted of terrorism-related offenses

The following converts have been convicted on charges related to terrorism:

• Ryan G. Anderson - former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda [9] [10]
• Dhiren Barot - convicted of the 2004 Financial buildings plot using radioactive dirty bombs
• Jerôme Courtailler and David Courtailler - two French brothers, convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists [11] [12] [13]
• Wadih el-Hage - Lebanese, from Catholicism, Osama bin Laden's right hand man, convicted for conspiracy against the United States and mass murder
• Richard Reid - British "Shoe Bomber"
• Jack Roche - former Jemaah Islamiah member in Australia
• John Walker Lindh - Joined Afghanistan's Taliban movement.
• Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka "Carlos the Jackal"
• Jason Walters - of the Netherlands, member of the Hofstad Network [14]

[edit] Terrorist suspects

The following converts are suspected by various governmental authorities of being involved with terrorism:

• Adam Yahiye Gadahn - from Christianity, suspected Al Qaeda spokesman in the U.S.
• Christian Ganczarski - suspected by German authorities of ties with high ranking Al Qaeda officials [15]
• David Hicks - presumably from Christianity, held by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
• Umar Islam (Brian Young) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
• Vladimir Khodov - from Russian Orthodoxy, allegedly participated in the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren.[16]
• Pavel Kosolapov - Russian, suspected by Russian authorities of planning several suicide operations in Chechnya [17] [18]
• José Padilla - detained by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
• Ahmed Santos (militant) - Filipino, from Roman Catholicism, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative [19] [20] [21]
• Ibrahim Savant (Oliver Savant) - has been charged with conspiracy to murder and with preparing acts of terrorism in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot
• Martine van den Oever - of the Netherlands, for abetting the Hofstad Network
• Abdul Waheed (Don Stewart-White) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot [22] [23]

[edit] Other crimes

The following are associated with notable criminal cases:

• Yasin Abu Bakr - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006 [24]
• Mumia Abu-Jamal - journalist, political activist, convicted of murder, his case is being reinvestigated
• Hasan Akbar - U.S. soldier, convicted of killing two U.S. officers during duty in Kuwait [25]
• David Belfield - American, assassinated Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident and subsequently fled to Iran, [26] charged with murder [27]
• Jill Courtney - Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people [28] [29] [30] [31]
• John Allen Muhammad [32]
• James Yee - American captain accused of espionage and sedition before charges were dropped.

[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
• List of Muslims
• List of Western Muslims
• List of American Muslims
• List of Islamic and Muslim related topics
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• List of people who left Islam

[edit] References

<references />fr:Personnalités converties à l'Islam