List of converts to Islam from nontheism

This is a list of notable people who have converted to Islam after a period where they claimed to be atheistic or non-theistic.

Converts to Islam
Name	Notes	Refs
Gai Eaton	British diplomat and writer.	^[1]^[2]
Silma Ihram	Née Anne Frances Beaumont; Australian educator, author, and racial tolerance campaigner. After an agnostic upbringing she became "born again Christian" and then Muslim.	^[3]
Martin Lings	Widely acclaimed British scholar. He was raised as a Protestant, became an atheist, and later converted to Islam.	^[4]
Ingrid Mattson	Canadian scholar and former president of the Islamic Society of North America; was raised in Catholicism but left it years before conversion.	^[5]^[6]
Nursultan Nazarbayev	Former President of Kazakhstan.	^[7]
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez	"Carlos the Jackal" - Marxist who was convicted of terrorism and converted to Islam.	^[8]
G. (Gwendolyn) Willow Wilson	American comics writer, prose author, essayist, and journalist; relaunched the Ms. Marvel title for Marvel Comics starring a 16-year-old Muslim superhero named Kamala Khan. She was an atheist and grew up as such.	^[9]^[10]
Dr. Abdullah (Periyar Dasan)	Professor, scholar, eminent speaker, psychologist, activist, national award winning film's actor from Tamil Nadu.^[11] He propagated atheism and rationalist ideologies for most part of his life, and later converted to Islam.^[11]	^[11]^[12]

References

^ The Radical Middle Way – Hasan Le Gai Eaton Archived September 7, 2012, at archive.today
^ "Charles Le Gai Obituary". The Guardian. April 19, 2010.
^ FAIR (pdf) Archived August 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Martin Lings, a Sufi Writer on Islamic Ideas, Dies at 96". The New York Times. May 29, 2005. Retrieved May 8, 2010. He was raised a Protestant, and later became an atheist, according to Zaman, a Turkish newspaper.
^ Edward E. Curtis, ed. (2010). "Mattson, Ingrid". Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History. Infobase Publishing. p. 362.
^ "A View from the Edge". Commonweal Magazine. February 11, 2013.
^ "Heard the one about the rabbi, the imam, and the Buddhist monk?". The Independent. July 6, 2009. He [Nicholas Baines, then-Anglican Bishop of Croydon] has watched Mr. Nazarbayev transform himself from an open atheist into pro-religion leader who has even made the Haj pilgrimage.
^ "'Jackal' book praises Bin Laden". BBC. June 26, 2003.
^ Wilson, G. Willow (March 25, 2015). "Islam Sci-fi Interview of G. Willow Wilson (Part I)". Islam and Science Fiction (Interview). Interviewed by Rebecca Hankins.
^ Wilson, G. Willow (June 20, 2010). "Beneath the veil". Boston.com (Interview). Interviewed by Ideas.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Periyardasan takes final bow after multiple roles". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
^ "'Periyar Dasan's conversion not a surprise'". The New Indian Express. 13 April 2010.^{[dead link]}