List of converts to Christianity from Islam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History

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

A

Thumb
Saint Abo of Tiflis, Patron Saint of Tbilisi, Georgia

B

C

Thumb
Constantine the African was a physician who converted to Catholicism from Sunni Islam.[57][58]

E

G

H

  • 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[65]

J

K

L

Thumb
Imad ud-din Lahiz was an Islamic writer, preacher and Quranic translator, who converted to Christianity from Islam.
Thumb
Sake Dean Mahomed was a traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who converted to Christianity from Sunni Islam.[71]

M

N

  • 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.[82]
  • Ibrahim NjoyaBamum king; back and forth conversions from Islam to Christianity[83]
  • Nunilo and Alodia – 9th-century sisters recognized as Catholic saints and martyrs in Moorish Spain, executed for apostasy for converting to Christianity

Q

R

S

Thumb
Portrait of Bashir Shihab II, emir (prince) who ruled Ottoman Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century

T

  • Tabaraji of Ternate – Indonesian sultan; converted to Roman Catholicism after 1534 and baptised with the name Dom Manuel[100][101]
  • 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[102]

U

X

  • 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[105]

Y

Z

  • Zaida of Seville – born an Iberian Muslim; 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[106]
  • 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[107]
  • Abu'l-Maghra ibn Musa ibn Zurara - last Zurarid emir of Arzen

20th and 21st century

A

B

Thumb
Josephine Bakhita, Roman Catholic saint from Darfur, Sudan

C

Thumb
Michał Czajkowski, a Polish-Cossack writer and political emigre who worked both for the resurrection of Poland

D

E

Thumb
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary, Queen consort of Iran

F

  • Joseph Fadelle (born Mohammed al-Sayyid al-Moussawi) – Roman Catholic convert from Islam and writer born in 1964 in Iraq to a Shiite family[169][170][171]
  • Rima Fakih – Lebanese-American actress, model, professional wrestler and beauty pageant titleholder; Miss USA 2010; converted to Maronite Christianity[172]
  • Donald Fareed – Iranian televangelist and minister[173]
  • Hazem FarrajPalestinian-American writer, minister, and televangelist[174]

G

H

I

J

  • 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[182]
  • Esther John – born to a Pakistani Muslim family; converted to Christianity; became a nurse to rural communities in Northern India and was later murdered[183]
  • Mario Joseph – born into a Muslim family, 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[184]
  • Lina JoyMalay 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[185]

K

L

M

N

O

  • Malika OufkirMoroccan writer and daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir; she and her siblings are converts from Islam to Catholicism and she writes in her book, Stolen Lives, "we had rejected Islam, which had brought us nothing good, and opted for Catholicism instead".[206]

P

Q

  • Nabeel Qureshi – former Ahmadiyya Muslim; converted to Evangelical Christianity in 2005; became an internationally recognized apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries[210][211]

R

S

Thumb
Albertus Soegijapranata, a national hero of Indonesia, was the first native Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop in Indonesia.
Thumb
Queen Nazli Sabri of Egypt, who converted to Christian-Catholicism from Sunni Islam

T

Thumb
Conrad Tillard

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

References

See also

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.