List of converts to Islam

This is a list of notable people, mainly from the United States and Europe, who have converted to Islam sometime during their lives.

Converts to Mainstream Islam

Companions of Muhammad

Abbad ibn Bishr - known for his devotion to worship, knowledge and courage in battle
Abd-Allah ibn Abbas - from paganism, cousin of Muhammad
Abd-Allah ibn Jahsh - from paganism, cousin of Muhammad
Abd-Allah ibn Mas'ud - from paganism, was the 6th man who converted to Islam after Muhammad started preaching in Mecca
Abd-Allah ibn Umar - from paganism, son of the second Caliph Umar ibn Khattab
Abd-al-Rahman ibn Awf - from paganism, one of the first eight persons to accept Islam
Abdullah ibn Sailam - from Judaism, was a rabbi
Abdullah ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari - was one among the Ansar
Abu Bakr - father of Aisha, first of the Four Caliphs and rightful successor to Muhammad (according to Sunni Muslims)
Abu Dharr - from paganism, noted for his piety
Abu Hurayrah - from Judaism, narrator of Hadith most quoted in the isnad
Abu Musa al-Asha'ari - governor of Basra and Kufa
Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith - son of Harith ibn Abd al-Muttalib
Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah - member of the Quraysh clan al-Harith ibn Fihr
Adiyy ibn Hatim - from paganism, was an Arab king
Aisha - from pre-Islamic Arab paganism, scholar, the youngest wife of Muhammad, see Wives of Muhammad
Al-Baraa ibn Malik al-Ansari - from paganism, personal aide of the Prophet
Ali ibn Abi Talib - first Imam, last of the Four Caliphs and rightful successor to Muhammad (according to Shi'a Muslims)
An-Numan ibn Muqarrin - was the leader of the tribe of Banu Muzaynah
At-Tufayl ibn Amr ad-Dawsi - was chief of the Daws tribe from Tihama
Bilal ibn Ribah - freed from slavery by Abu Bakr
Habib ibn Zayd al-Ansari - martyr of Islam
Hakim ibn Hazm - from paganism, was principal narrator of hadith
Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib - from paganism, uncle of Muhammad
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman - one of the earliest converts to Islam
Jafar ibn Abi Talib - known as "the possessor of two wings"
Julaybib - from paganism, was a martyr
Khabbab ibn al-Aratt - from the Banu Tamim clan in Najd
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid - from pre-Islamic Arab paganism, businesswoman, the first wife of Muhammad, the first female convert to Islam, see Wives of Muhammad
Muadh ibn Jabal - noted for his intelligence, quick wit, potency in speech
Muhammad Ibn Maslamah - was among the first in Yathrib to become a Muslim
Salman the Persian - from Zoroastrism
Umar ibn al-Khattab - second of the Four Caliphs
Uthman ibn Affan - third of the Four Caliphs

Politics related

Michel Aflaq - from the Greek Orthodox Church, the ideological founder of Baathism
Yousef Al-Khattab (Yosef Cohen) - from Orthodox Judaism, converted to Islam with his wife and 4 children, his political goal is to implement Islamic Sharia worldwide [1]
Haji Idi Amin - from Catholicism, former dictator of Uganda
Khaled Edward Blair - English barrister, works for an investment bank, married to Princess Badiya of Jordan
Jean-Bédel Bokassa - from Catholicism (later reconverted), Central African Emperor
Omar Bongo - President of Gabon
Torquato Cardilli - Italian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Thomas Haidon - from Catholicism, lawyer, government advisor of New Zealand [2]
Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) - Islamic activist
Iyasu V - former Emperor of Ethiopia
Mathieu Kérékou - from Christianity (later reconverted), President of Benin
Karl Nickner - Executive Director of CAIR-CAN [3]
David Musa Pidcock - from Catholic Christianity, leader of the Islamic Party of Britain
Apisai Tora - Fijian politician
Sabrina Varroni - of Italy, fined € 80 for wearing a burqa in Drezzo, Italy sparking a controversy in Italian politics [4]
Malcom X / Malik Shabazz (Malcolm Little) - from Christianity to NOI to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader

Sports related

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - retired basketball player, NBA's all-time leading scorer
Karim Abdul-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - former football player
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - retired basketball player
Tariq Abdul-Wahad - basketball player
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) - from Christianity to NOI to mainstream Islam, American retired boxer
Nicolas Anelka - French football player
Chris Eubank - boxer
Mustafa Hamsho - boxer
Bernard Hopkins - boxer
Mohammed Jaafar - Australian professional wrestler
Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup
Muhsin Muhammad - football player
Matthew Saad Muhammad - from Catholic Christianity, former boxer
Robin Van Persie - former Dutch football player, midfielder of Arsenal FC
Dwight Muhammad Qawi - boxer
Franck Ribery - French football player
Ahmed Santos - American publicist, former boxer
Philippe Troussier - former French football player, trainer of a Japanese football team
Mike Tyson - former heavyweight boxing champion of the world
Rasheed Wallace - basketball player
George Weah - from Christianity (later reconverted), professional football player
Danny Williams - British boxer
Mohammad Yousuf - from Christianity, Pakistani cricket player

Art related

Dawud Wharnsby Ali - singer [5]
Maurice Béjart - French choreographer
Art Blakey - jazz drummer
Prince Buster - reggae musician
Dave Chappelle - from Unitarianism (Christian roots), American Comedian
John Coltrane - from Christianity (also adhered to other religions)
Mos Def - rapper
Everlast - from Catholicism
Flesh-N-Bone - from the rap group, Bone Thugs N Harmony
Abdullah Ibrahim - South African musician
Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) - from Greek Orthodox and Catholic Christianity
Jermaine Jackson - from Jehovah's Witnesses, former member of the Jackson Five
Ahmad Jamal - jazz pianist
Yusef Lateef - jazz musician
Idris Muhammad
Peter Murphy - from Catholicism, lead singer of the post-punk band, Bauhaus
Napoleon - from a Christian / Muslim household
Q-Tip - rapper, founder and leader of the former band A Tribe Called Quest
A. R. Rahman - Indian music composer
MC Ren - rapper
Peter Sanders - photographer
Omar Sharif - actor
Joe Tex - rapper
Richard Thompson - songwriter

Religious figures

Umar Faruq Abd-Allah - from Protestant Christianity, Islamic scholar
Abdul-Ahad Omar (Gary Miller) - former Christian priest and missionary
Shabbetai Tzvi - former Jewish religious leader

Scholars

Aminah Assilmi - from a Southern Baptist, scholar, director of the International Union of Muslim Women
Hamid Algar - a tenured British professor at the University of Berkeley, has particular expertise in the Ja'fari school of thought and Iranian civilization
Dr. Sherman A. Jackson - Islamic Scholar and Academic, University of Michigan Near East Studies and Law School
Nuh Ha Mim Keller - from Catholic Christianity to agnosticism to Sufism, Islamic scholar
Martin Lings - from Protestantism to Sufism
Ingrid Mattson - Canadian scholar
Jeremiah McAuliffe - from Catholicism, American convert to Islam who holds a doctorate in formative spirituality from Duquesne University [6]
Akbar Muhammad - scholar of history and African studies
Muhammad Pickthall (Marmaduke Pickthall) - from Christianity, a translator of the Qur'an
Zaid Shakir - Islamic scholar
Haschem Wilde - British Muslim professor
Timothy J. Winter - Islamic scholar, Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge
Sheikh 'Abd al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon) - from Catholic Christianity to Sufism, philosopher
Khalid Yasin - former American Christian, the Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute (ITI)
Hamza Yusuf - Islamic scholar

Philosophy related

Titus Burckhardt - philosopher, historian, mystic
Roger Garaudy - French philosopher, writer

Writers and journalists

Ali Bey al-Abbasi - writer, explorer (disputed)
Muhammed al-Ahari - from Christianity, American essayist
Muhammad Asad - from Judaism, writer
Amir Butler - Salafi Australian author
Ian Dallas - writer
Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer and writer
Knud Holmboe - 19th century Danish journalist, explorer
Ali Ibrahim Kalyanaraman - from Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, poet, author, scholar
Maryam Jameelah - from Reform Judaism, essayist, poet, journalist and author
Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood - from Protestant Christianity, British author
Margaret Marcus - from Reform Judaism
Daniel Moore - from Christianity, poet
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
Bilal Racheha - Australian social commentator
Yvonne Ridley - from Anglicanism, journalist
Stephen Schwartz - Sufi journalist
Kamala Suraiya - Indian writer
Pamela Taylor - writer and board member of the Progressive Muslim Union [7] [8]
Brandon Toropov - from Christianity
Alexander Russell Webb - from Presbyterian Christianity, 19th Century U.S. journalist
Michael Wolfe - writer, documentarist
Michael Young - of Britain [9]

Mystics

Samuel L. Lewis - aka Ahmed Murad Chisti or Sufi Sam
Daniel Moore - Sufi poet

Society figures

Jemima Goldsmith - from Judaism, British socialite, ex-wife of Imran Khan
Heather Laird-Jackson - from Christianity, American Muslim activist, wife of Dr. Sherman A. Jackson
Ayesha Sultana (Sharmila Tagore) - from Hinduism, Bollywood actress, converted to marry her husband

Science related

Jeffrey Lang - mathematician, has a Saudi Arabian wife
Susanne Osthoff - German archaelogist, hostage in Iraq

Military related

Ranking officers

Mehemet Ali - German general
Józef Bem - Polish-Hungarian general
Claude Alexandre de Bonneval - French general
Murad Wilfred Hofmann - from Catholic Christianity, NATO official
Jacques-Francois Menou - French general, governor of Egypt
Emin Pasha - German general
Omer Pasha - Bosnian general
Suleiman Pasha - French general
Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Austrian general
James Yee - American captain

Militants

Ryan G. Anderson - former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda [10] [11]
Aukai Collins - Hawaiian American, fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book [12]
Bob Denard - French mercenary
David Hicks - presumably from Christianity, held by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
John Walker Lindh - from Catholic Christianity, the "American Taliban"
José Padilla - detained by the U.S. as an illegal enemy combatant
The Portland Seven - Jeffrey Leon Battle, Patrice Lumumba Ford and October Lewis
Hiram Torres and Thomas Fischer - converts who died while participating in armed jihad, American Torres died in Afghanistan [13] and German Fischer died in Chechnya [14]

Crime related

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

Jerôme Courtailler and David Courtailler - two French brothers, convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists, [15] [16] alongside with fellow converts Johann Bonté and Jean-Marc Grandvisir [17]
Lionel Dumont - convicted by French authorities for participation in a series of attacks in the 1990s, including an attempt to bomb a Group of Seven summit in Lille [18]
Wadih el-Hage - from Catholicism, Lebanese, Osama bin Laden's right hand man, convicted for conspiracy against the United States and mass murder
Clement Rodney Hampton-El - converted from the Moorish Science Temple, member of al-Fuqra, convicted of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing [19] [20]
Domenico Quaranta - Italian, convicted for setting fire to a Milan subway station and trying to attack ancient Greek temples in Agrigento, Sicily [21]
Richard Reid - British "Shoe Bomber"
Jack Roche - former Jemaah Islamiah member in Australia
Andrew Rowe - of Britain [22]
Randall Royer - American, convicted for possession of illegal arms and explosives, struck a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors [23]
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka "Carlos the Jackal"
Steven Smyrek - German convert, served seven years for preparing a suicide attack [24]
Joseph Thomas - of Australia [25]
Jason Walters - of the Netherlands [26]

The following converts died in the commission of suicide attacks.

Muriel Degauque - Belgian, died in a suicide bombing against American troops in Iraq
Sergey Dimitriyev - Russian, died during a suicide attack in Chechnya on June 11, 2000
Jamal Lindsay - participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings [27] [28] [29]

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 [30]
Abu Malik - American, implicated by the U.S. Department of Justice in the 1998 United States embassy bombings [31]
Vladimir Khodov - from Russian Orthodoxy, allegedly participated in the Beslan raid, suspected by Russian authorities to be a terrorist [32]
Pavel Kosolapov - Russian, suspected by Russian authorities of planning several suicide operations in Chechnya [33] [34]
Ahmed Santos (militant) - from Roman Catholicism, of the Philippines, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative [35] [36]

Other crimes

The following converts are associated with notable criminal cases.

Yasin Abu Bakr - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006 [37]
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 [38]
David Belfield - American convert, assassinated Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident and subsequently fled to Iran, [39] charged with murder [40]
Jill Courtney - Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people [41] [42] [43] [44]
David Myatt - from Paganism, Neo-Nazi-activist [45]
Pierre Robert - French convert, sentenced to life imprisonment by Moroccan authorities for establishing an Islamist network in northern Morocco [46] [47]

Unclassified

Yusman Roy - imprisoned in Indonesia for conducting Islamic ceremonies in a language other than Arabic

Converts to Nation of Islam

Note that the Nation of Islam is seen as a cult by mainstream Islam.

Ice Cube - confirms being a Muslim but disputes being involved with the NOI, his position is not wholly clear
John Allen Muhammad - of the U.S., labelled the 'Washington Sniper'
Benjamin Chavis Muhammad