From Islam
Mohammed Hegazy the first Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to seek official recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian Government.[6]
Italian journalist Magdi Allam converted to Roman Catholicism during the Vatican's 2008 Easter vigil service presided over by Pope Benedict XVI.[7]
Born into a Muslim Batak family, Indonesian Prime Minister Amir Sjarifuddin converted to Christianity in 1931, upon which his fervently Islamic mother committed suicide.[8]
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- Aslan Abashidze - leader of the Ajarian Autonomous Republic in western Georgia. Abashidze was born into a renowned Muslim Ajarian family, a branch of the Abashidze princely house.
- Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman - a Somali convert to Christianity who was shot by al Shabaab members.[9]
- Ibrahim Abdullah - American former PLO terrorist.[10]
- Abo of Tiflis - Christian activist and the Patron Saint of the city of Tbilisi, Georgia.[3]
- Taysir Abu Saada - a former member of the PLO and the founder of the christian ministry Hope For Ishmael after he converted to christianity. He was Yasir Arafat's personal driver.[11][12]
- Abraham of Bulgaria - Martyr and saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.[13]
- Rotimi Adebari - a Nigerian-born Irish politician and the first black mayor in Ireland.
- St. Adolphus - Christian martyr who was put to death along with his brother, John, by Abd ar-Rahman II, Caliph of Córdoba for apostasy.[14]
- Mehmet Ali Ağca - Turkish born who attempt to murder Pope John Paul II in 1981. He became a Catholic during his time in prison.
- Al-Mu'eiyyad - Abbasid prince and third son of Abbasid caliph, Al-Mutawakkil. He was converted to Christianity along with his three confidants by St. Theodore of Edessa, accepting the name "John" upon baptism.[15][16]
- Jabalah ibn al-Aiham - last ruler of the Ghassanid state in Syria and Jordan in the seventh century AD. After the Islamic conquest of Levant he converted to Islam in AD 638. He reverted to Christianity later on and lived in Anatolia until he died in AD 645.[17]
- Ibrahim Ben Ali - a soldier, physician and one of the earliest American settlers of Turkish origin.
- Amina Muse Ali - a Somali convert to Christianity who were shot by al Shabaab members.[9]
- Mohammed Ahmed Ali - a Somali convert to Christianity who were murdered by al Shabaab members.[18]
- Magdi Allam (baptized as Magdi Cristiano Allam) - Italy's most famous Islamic affairs journalist.[7]
- Zachariah Anani - former Sunni Muslim Lebanese militia fighter [19]
- Hussain Andaryas - Afghan Christian activist and tele-evangelist.[20]
- Matthew Ashimolowo - Nigerian-born British pastor and evangelist.[21]
- Aurelius and Natalia - Christian martyrs who were put to death during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II, Caliph of Córdoba for apostasy.[22]
- Maria Aurora of Spiegel - born as Fatima, mistress of Augustus II of Saxony
- Johannes Avetaranian - (born Muhammad Shukri Efendi), Christian missionary and Turkish descendant of Prophet Muhammad.[23]
- Josephine Bakhita - Roman Catholic saint from Darfur, Sudan.[24]
- Sarah Balabagan - a Filipina prisoner in the United Arab Emirates during 1994 - 96 whose case caused a good deal of controversy.
- Fathima Rifqa Bary - a young woman of Sri Lankan descent who drew international attention in 2009 when, at age 16, she ran away from her Ohio home saying that her Muslim parents are going to kill her for becoming a Christian.
- Sheikh Ahmed Barzani - Head of Barzani Tribe in Iraqi Kurdistan and older brother of Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish nationalist leader. He announced his conversion to Christianity in 1931 during the anti-government uprising.[25]
- Simeon Bekbulatovich - Khan of Qasim Khanate.[26]
- Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky - Russian officer of Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia.[27]
- Francis Bok - Sudanese-American activist, convert to Islam from Christianity; but later returned to his Christian faith.[28]
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa - Central African Republic Emperor (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity).[29]
- Dr.Thomas Yayi Boni - President of Benin.[30]
- Sayed Borhan khan - Khan of Qasim Khanate from 1627 to 1679.[26]
- Casilda of Toledo - venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. According to her legend, St. Casilda, a daughter of a Muslim king of Toledo (called Almacrin or Almamun), showed special kindness to Christian prisoners by carrying bread hidden in her clothes to feed them.
- George XI of Kartli - ruled Kartli, eastern Georgia.
- Djibril Cissé - French soccer player of Ivorian descent.[31]
- Hansen Clarke - the U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district.[32]
- Eldridge Cleaver - Author, prominent American civil rights leader, and key member of the Black Panther Party. He converted to Mormonism.[33][34]
- Constantine the African - Baghdad-educated Muslim who died in 1087 as a Christian monk at Monte Cassino.[35][36]
- Nonie Darwish - Egyptian American writer and public speaker.[4]
- Sedar Dedeoglu - a Turk who claims to be a descendant of Islam's prophet Muhammad has converted to Christianity while living in Germany.[37]
- Hassan Dehqani-Tafti - Anglican Bishop of Iran from 1961 to 1990.[38]
- Mehdi Dibaj - Iranian pastor and Christian activist.[39]
- Momolu Dukuly - politician in Liberia. He left Islam and embraced Christianity before he became foreign minister [34].
- Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad - an Egyptian former Muslim sheikh. For more than 20 years, el-Akkad was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Da'wa el Tabligh, which actively proselytized non-Muslims but strictly opposed violence. He also led a mosque community in Al-Haram, in the Giza area adjacent to Cairo. In 1994, he published, Islam: the Religion, a 500-page book reviewing the traditional beliefs and dogmas of Islam. He late became disillusioned with Islam and began to question certain Islamic tenets. A theological discourse with a Christian led him to conduct an intensive study of Christian Scripture, after which he converted to Christianity in January 2005.[citation needed]
- Estevanico - Berber originally from Morocco and one of the early explorers of the Southwestern United States.[40]
- Gulshan Esther - Pakistani convert from Islam to Christianity.[41]
- Donald Fareed - Iranian Christian tele-evangelist and minister.[42]
- Jacob Frank - 18th century Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi, and also of King David. Frank publicly converted to Islam in 1757 and later to Christianity at Poland in 1759, but actually presented himself as the Messiah of a syncretic derivation of Shabbatai Zevi's Messianism now referred to as Frankism.[43]
- Mark A. Gabriel- Egyptian Islamic scholar and writer[44]
- Daveed Gartenstein-Ross- Counter-terrorism expert and attorney (from Judaism to Islam to Christianity).[45][46]
- Akbar Gbaja-Biamila - American football player.[5][47]
- Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila - an American football defensive end who was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and is currently a free agent.
- Ruffa Gutierrez - Filipina actress, model and former beauty queen (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity)[48]
- Umar ibn Hafsun - Leader of anti-Ummayad dynasty forces in southern Iberia. Hafsun converted to Christianity with his sons and ruled over several mountain valleys for nearly forty years, having the castle Bobastro as his residence.[49]
- Naveed Afzal Haq - Pakistani American charged for the July 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shooting. He converted to Christianity in December, 2005 but reverted to Islam by the time of the shooting.[50]
- Mohammed Hegazy - First Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to seek official recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian Government. Threats force Egyptian convert to hide, MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer Sat August 11,[6]
- Aben Humeya - (born Fernando de Valor) Morisco Chief who was crowned the Emir of Andalusia by his followers and led the Morisco Revolt against Philip II of Spain.[51]
- Mariam Muhina Hussein - a Somali convert to Christianity who was murdered by al Shabaab members after discovering she had six Bibles.[9]
- Tunch Ilkin - former American football player.[52]
- Qadry Ismail - former American football player.[53]
- Raghib Ismail - former American football player.[54]
- Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh - Brother of Zaynab bint Jahsh, the wife of Prophet Muhammad and one of the male Sahaba (companions of the Prophet).[55]
- Esther John - a Pakistani Christian nurse.[56] She is counted in ten most famous Christian martyrs of the present day.
- Lina Joy - Malaysian convert to Christianity. The desire to have her conversion recognized was the subject of a court case in Malaysia.[57]
- Don Juan of Persia - a late 16th and early 17th century figure in Iran and Spain. He settled in Spain where he became a Roman Catholic.
- Alexander Kazembek - Russian Orientalist, historian and philologist of Azeri origin .[58]
- Mathieu Kérékou- President of Benin (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity).[59]
- Omar Khalafe - a Somali convert to Christianity who was shot by al Shabaab members.[9]
- Kitty Kirkpatrick - born in India and brought up as Shia Muslim.
- Emir Kusturica - Bosnian Serb filmmaker and actor.[60][61]
- Imad ud-din Lahiz - Prolific Islamic writer, preacher and Qur'anic translator.[62]
- Fernão Lopez - first known permanent inhabitant of the remote Island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Nur Luke - Uyghur Bible translator.[63]
- Fadhma Aït Mansour - Mother of French writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche.[64]
- Sake Dean Mahomed - an Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who introduced the Indian take-away curry house restaurant in Britain, and was the first Indian to have written a book in the English language.
- Josef Mässrur - (born Ghäsim Khan) missionary to Chinese Turkestan with the Mission Union of Sweden.[65]
- Ahmed Matan - a Somali convert to Christianity who was shot by al Shabaab members.[9]
- Carlos Menem - former President of Argentina. Raised a Muslim but converted to Roman Catholicism, a constitutional requirement for accessing the presidency until 1994.[66]
- St. George El Mozahem - A coptic saint[67][68][69]
- Yadegar Mokhammad of Kazan - was the last khan of Kazan Khanate (1552).
- Yadegar Moxammat of Kazan - Last khan of Kazan Khanate.[26]
- Muhsin Muhammad - current American football player for the Carolina Panthers, raised in a Muslim household, later converted to Christianity.[70]
- Paul Mulla - Turkish scholar and professor of Islamic Studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute.[71]
- Marina Nemat - Canadian author of Iranian descent and former political prisoner of the Iranian government. Born into a Christian family, she converted to Islam in order to avoid execution but later reverted to Christianity.[72]
- Nunilo and Alodia - a pair of child martyrs from Huesca. Born of a mixed marriage, they eschewed the Islam of their father in favour of their mother's Christianity.
- Malika Oufkir - Moroccan writer, daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir, and former prisoner of King Hassan II of Morocco.
- Shams Pahlavi - Iranian princess and the elder sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran.[73]
- Hamid Pourmand - former Iranian army colonel and lay leader of the Jama'at-e Rabbani, the Iranian branch of the Assemblies of God church in Iran.[74]
- Abdul Rahman - Afghan convert to Christianity who escaped the death penalty because of foreign pressure.[75]
- Stefan Razvan - Gypsy prince who ruled Moldavia for six months in 1595.[76]
- Emily Ruete - (born Sayyida Salme) Princess of Zanzibar and Oman.[77][78][79]
- Ibrahim Rugova - an Albanian politician who was the first President of Kosovo and of its leading political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) is rumored to have converted to Christianity just before his death in January 2006.[80]
- Nazli Sabri - Queen consort of Egypt.[81][82]
- Begum Samru - Powerful lady of north India, ruling a large area from Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh.[83]
- James Scurry - a British soldier and statesman.
- Mohamed Alí Seineldín - a former Argentine army colonel who participated in two failed coup attempts against the democratically elected governments of both President Raúl Alfonsín and President Carlos Menem in 1988 and 1990.[84]
- Hakeem Seriki (AKA Chamillionaire) - American rapper[85][86]
- The Sibirsky family - The foremost of many Genghisid (Shaybanid) noble families formerly living in Russia.[87]
- The Shihab family - prominent Lebanese noble family who originally belonged to Sunni Islam and converted to Christianity at the end of the 18th century[88]
- Walid Shoebat - American author and former member of the PLO.[89]
- Nasir Siddiki - Canadian evangelist, author, and business consultant.[90]
- Amir Sjarifuddin - Indonesian socialist leader who later became the prime minister of Indonesia during its National Revolution.[8]
- Skanderbeg - Albanian military leader. Skanderbeg converted to Islam from Christianity but reverted back to Christianity later in life.[91]
- Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan.[92]
- Hossein Soodmand - executed for apostasy. Although born a Muslim, by 1989 Hossein had been a Christian for 25 years.
- Patrick Sookhdeo - British Anglican canon[93]
- Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal - Two Turkish Christian converts who went on trial in 2006, on charges of "allegedly insulting 'Turkishness' and inciting religious hatred against Islam".[94]
- Maria Temryukovna - a Circassian princess, and second wife to Ivan IV of Russia who was born in a Muslim upbringing, and baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church on August 21, 1561.[95]
- Ghorban Tourani - former Iranian Sunni Muslim who became a Christian minister. Following multiple murder threats, he was abducted and murdered on November 22, 2005.[96]
- Utameshgaray of Kazan - Khan of Kazan Khanate.[26]
- George Weah - Liberian soccer player (from Christianity to Islam back to Christianity).[97]
- Mosab Hassan Yousef - son of a Hamas leader.[98]
- Mumin Abdikarim Yusuf - a Somali convert to Christianity.[9]
- Ramzi Yousef - Al Qaeda member and the main participant in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and The Bojinka plot.[99][100]
- Zaida of Seville - a refugee Muslim princess who became queen of Alfonso VI of Castile.
- Saye Zerbo - President of the republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) [101]