List of converts to Catholicism from Islam

Converts

A

• Jean Mohamed Ben Abdeljlil – Moroccan Roman Catholic priest and a Catholic convert from Islam.
• Basuki Abdullah, Indonesian painter
• Leo Africanus, Berber Andalusi Moorish diplomat and author who was converted to Christianity following his capture
• Bernard of Alzira, Andalusian prince and diplomat
• Juan Andrés – Spanish Islamic scholar who converted to Catholicism and wrote a well known polemical work against Islam, the Confusión o confutación de la secta mahomética y del Alcorán
• Juliana Awada, Lebanese-Argentine businesswoman and First Lady of Argentina

  B

• Josephine Bakhita, Sudanese-Italian Canossian religious sister and Roman Catholic saint from Darfur, Sudan. She was forcibly converted to Islam. On 9 January 1890 Bakhita was baptised with the names of Josephine Margaret and Fortunata.
• Bayano – also known as Ballano or Vaino, was an African enslaved by Spaniards who led the biggest slave revolts of 16th century in Panama
• Mohammed Christophe Bilek – Algerian former Muslim who lives in France since 1961; baptized Roman Catholic in 1970; in the 1990s, he founded Our Lady of Kabyle, a French website devoted to evangelisation among Muslims
• Francis Bok – Sudanese-American activist, convert to Islam from Christianity; but later returned to his Christian faith
• Jean-Bédel Bokassa, dictator of the Central African Republic and its successor state, the Central African Empire in what he became and declared Emperor.

  C

• Moussa Dadis Camara – ex-officer of the Guinean army who served as the President of the Republic of Guinea; Roman Catholic Christian convert from Islam
• Rianti Cartwright – Indonesian actress, model, presenter and VJ; two weeks before departure to the United States to get married, she left the Muslim faith to become a baptized Catholic with the name Sophia Rianti Rhiannon Cartwright
• Chehab family – prominent Lebanese noble family; having converted from Sunni Islam, the religion of his predecessors, was the first Maronite ruler of the Emirate of Mount Lebanon
• Djibril Cissé – French international footballer
• Hansen Clarke – U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district
• Constantine the African – Baghdad-educated Muslim who died in 1087 as a Christian monk at Monte Cassino

  D

• Justinus Darmojuwono, first Indonesian Cardinal of the Catholic Church; converted to Catholicism in 1932, served as Archbishop of Semarang from 1963 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1967
• Bob Denard – French soldier and mercenary. Born a Roman Catholic, Denard converted first to Judaism, then to Islam, and finally back to Catholicism again

  E

• Estevanico Berber originally from Morocco and one of the early explorers of the Southwestern United States

  F

• Joseph Fadelle – Roman Catholic convert from Islam and writer born in 1964 in Iraq to a Shiite family
• Rima Fakih, Lebanese-American model, actress, professional wrestler and beauty pageant titleholder, Miss USA 2010, converted to the Maronite Church from Shia Islam upon marriage to her Maronite husband

  G

• George XI of Kartli – Georgian monarch who ruled Eastern Georgia from 1676 to 1688 and again from 1703 to 1709; an Eastern Orthodox Christian, he converted to Islam prior to his appointment as governor of Qandahar; later converted to Roman Catholicism
• San Geronimo – a young Arab who had embraced Catholic Christianity, and had been baptized with the name of Geronimo
• Fathia Ghali,, Princess of Egypt and youngest daughter of Fuad I of Egypt and Nazli Sabri

  H

• Maria Hertogh – Dutch woman child who had been raised by Muslims more later returned to her Catholic biological parents
• Rajah Humabon, Rajah of Cebu, Philippines and first Filipino Sultan convert to Roman Catholicism and was baptized with the name Carlos

  I

• Antuan Ilgit, Turkish-Italian Jesuit

  J

• Sabatina James, born in Dhedar, Pakistani-Austrian book author; started a new life in Vienna, changing her name and converting to Catholicism; baptized in 2006
• Lina Joy – Malay 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
• Don Juan of Persia – late 16th- and early 17th-century figure in Iran and Spain; also known as Faisal Nazary; was a native of Iran, who later moved westward; settled in Spain where he became a Roman Catholic

  K

• George XI of Kartli, King of Kartli
• Ilyas Khan – British philanthropist and businessman. Notable British Roman Catholic convert from Islam
• Ivan Krušala – writer, diplomat, explorer and a Catholic convert from Islam.

  L

• Lakandula – Filipino ruler before Spanish conquest of Philippines
• Balthazar of Loyola – Moroccan prince
• Fernão Lopes , 16th-century Portuguese soldier in India who converted to Roman Catholicism

  M

• Enrique de Malaca – Malay slave of Ferdinand Magellan, converted to Roman Catholicism after being purchased in 1511
• Hubert Maga – former president of President of Dahomey
• Fadhma Aït Mansour – mother of French writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche
• Carlos Menem, former Syrian-Argentinian President of Argentina; raised a Nusayri but converted to Roman Catholicism, a constitutional requirement for accessing the presidency until 1994
• Mizse – last Palatine of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1290; born into a Muslim family in Tolna County in the Kingdom of Hungary; converted to Roman Catholicism
• Rajah Matanda – ruler of Maynila, a pre-Hispanic Tagalog polity along the Pasig River in what is now Manila, Philippines
• Archbishop Thomas Luke Msusa – born into a Muslim family; converted to Christianity as a child and later became an archbishop in his home country of Malawi, as well as converting and baptizing his father, a former imam
• Paul Mulla – Turkish scholar and professor of Islamic Studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute

  N

• Anthony Neyrot – Italian Dominican priest, apostate, reconvert, and martyr.

  O

• Fata Omanović – Bosniak historical figure from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Karim Ouchikh – French lawyer and politician of Algerian origin
• Malika Oufkir, Berber-Marrocan 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"

  P

• Shams Pahlavi, Princess of Iran and the elder sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran
• Agni Pratistha, Indonesian actress, model and former beauty queen, converted to Catholicism after marriage, although initially denied rumors of conversion

  R

• Abdul Rahman – Afghan convert to Catholic Christianity who escaped the death penalty because of foreign pressure
• Dewi Rezer – Indonesian model of French descent

  S

• Nazli Sabri, Queen of Egypt, converted to the Catholic Church in 1950 and took the name "Mary Elizabeth"
• Begum Samru – Kashmir ruler of Sardhana, a small principality near Meerut.
• Lamin Sanneh – Scholar of missions and religious studies
• Bashir Shihab II, Lebanese Emir of Mount Lebanon who ruled Lebanon in the first half of the 19th century; his family was Sunni Muslim; he and some members of his family converted to the Maronite Catholic Church at the end of the 18th century
• The Shihab family –prominent Lebanese noble family who originally belonged to Sunni Islam, and converted to Christianity at the end of the 18th century
• Skanderbeg, Albanian nobleman and military commander, was forcibly converted to Islam from Christianity, but reverted to Christianity later in life
• Rudolf Carl von Slatin – Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan
• Albertus Soegijapranata – born in Surakarta, Dutch East Indies, to a Muslim courtier and his wife who later converted to Catholicism; the first native Indonesian bishop; known for his pro-nationalistic stance, often expressed as "100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian"
• Isabel de Solís – slave concubine and later the consort of Abu l-Hasan Ali, Sultan of Granada. After sultan's death, she converted to Roman Catholicism
• Maria Aurora von Spiegel – Turkish mistress of Augustus II and the wife of a Polish noble

  T

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

  U

• Ismael Urbain – French journalist and interpreter.

  V

• Francis Verney – English adventurer, soldier of fortune, and pirate. Converted to Catholicism shortly before his death

  X

• Muley Xeque, 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

  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
• Zayd Abu Zayd the last Almohad governor of Valencia, Spain; remained a loyal ally of James I of Aragon; in 1236 he converted to Roman Catholicism, adopting the name of Vicente Bellvis, a fact which he kept secret until the fall of Valencia
• Saye Zerbo – President of the Republic of Upper Volta