Playing for the other team: 9 athletes who converted to Islam

Published February 21st, 2016 - 07:38 GMT

There's a bawdy saying in the world of sports that claims "It takes leather balls to play rugby". It takes similar spine to switch religions, especially when trading a Christian-based faith for Islam when you aren't from (or in) a Muslim-majority nation.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Even in Islamaphobic America, the number of Muslims has more than doubled since 9/11. It's a trend seen around the world, and in the world of sports where a musclebound God Squad (including a few notoriously naughty Neanderthals) are swapping vice for nice. Take a look.

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Former NBA basketball star Shaquille O’Neal made his new faith public when he spoke of his 2010 plans to take the sacred Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, hajj. The next year, Shaq made a wack statement to a PR.com reporter, “Fact is I’m Muslim, I’m Jewish, I’m Buddhist, I’m everybody ‘cause I’m a people person.” (Image: MadWorldNews)

South African cricketer Wayne Parnell converted in 2011. He took the name Waleed, meaning "newborn son", but goes by his Christian moniker professionally. Teammates of the former partier claim he hasn't touched alcohol since he converted, but in 2013 he got nabbed for recreational drugs use at a Mumbai party. (Image: www.glamorgancricket.com)

Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson took up Islam while in jail for a 1992 rape conviction. The former champ known for chomping on Evander Holyfield’s ear is besties with Donald Trump whose casinos hosted Mike’s early matches. Trump’s got his vote, despite Donald’s proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. (Image: SportsNet)

Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest boxer ever, was one of the first American Christian celebs to convert to Islam. The former Cassius Clay said of Trump's Muslim ban plan, “Leaders should use their position to bring understanding about...Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.”

German footballer Danny Blum plays for Bavarian second division team FC Nürnbergnew. He said he was short-tempered, erratic and felt he didn't belong, until he converted in 2014. His Christian parents needed some convincing, but he said in an interview, "Islam gave me strength. Prayer calms my soul.” (Image: brotherhoodinislam.tumblr.com)

As a college freshman, one of the best centers in American pro basketball left Catholicism and abandoned his birth name - Lew Alcindor - to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, "the manifestation of my African history, culture and beliefs" as he wrote in an OpEd in Al Jazeera. (Image: Public Domain)

New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams found his faith while playing in France. There he met a Tunisian family who introduced him to Islam. Until he converted in 2008, he had a rep as rugby's wild child - caught pant-less with an Aussie model, fined for public urination, and that drunk-driving incident. (Image: Brett Costello/DailyTelegraph)

Aussie National Rudby League player and amateur boxer Blake Ferguson became a Muslim in 2013, reversing a string of decidedly irreverent incidents of off-field behavior that included getting kicked out of a 2012 music festival for spitting on other patrons, and six months later indecently assaulting a woman in a night club. (Image: SBS.com)

Is Thierry Henry Muslim? Speculation swirls. The French Catholic striker made remarks during a 2008 interview with Aljazeera that many took to mean he was in process of switching to Islam, saying that his friends like Eric Abidal and Franck Ribery had also converted. But did he go though with it? Only Henry (and Allah) knows. (Image: hubpages.com)

Former NBA basketball star Shaquille O’Neal made his new faith public when he spoke of his 2010 plans to take the sacred Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, hajj. The next year, Shaq made a wack statement to a PR.com reporter, “Fact is I’m Muslim, I’m Jewish, I’m Buddhist, I’m everybody ‘cause I’m a people person.” (Image: MadWorldNews)

South African cricketer Wayne Parnell converted in 2011. He took the name Waleed, meaning "newborn son", but goes by his Christian moniker professionally. Teammates of the former partier claim he hasn't touched alcohol since he converted, but in 2013 he got nabbed for recreational drugs use at a Mumbai party. (Image: www.glamorgancricket.com)

Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson took up Islam while in jail for a 1992 rape conviction. The former champ known for chomping on Evander Holyfield’s ear is besties with Donald Trump whose casinos hosted Mike’s early matches. Trump’s got his vote, despite Donald’s proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. (Image: SportsNet)

Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest boxer ever, was one of the first American Christian celebs to convert to Islam. The former Cassius Clay said of Trump's Muslim ban plan, “Leaders should use their position to bring understanding about...Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.”

German footballer Danny Blum plays for Bavarian second division team FC Nürnbergnew. He said he was short-tempered, erratic and felt he didn't belong, until he converted in 2014. His Christian parents needed some convincing, but he said in an interview, "Islam gave me strength. Prayer calms my soul.” (Image: brotherhoodinislam.tumblr.com)

As a college freshman, one of the best centers in American pro basketball left Catholicism and abandoned his birth name - Lew Alcindor - to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, "the manifestation of my African history, culture and beliefs" as he wrote in an OpEd in Al Jazeera. (Image: Public Domain)

New Zealand rugby player Sonny Bill Williams found his faith while playing in France. There he met a Tunisian family who introduced him to Islam. Until he converted in 2008, he had a rep as rugby's wild child - caught pant-less with an Aussie model, fined for public urination, and that drunk-driving incident. (Image: Brett Costello/DailyTelegraph)

Aussie National Rudby League player and amateur boxer Blake Ferguson became a Muslim in 2013, reversing a string of decidedly irreverent incidents of off-field behavior that included getting kicked out of a 2012 music festival for spitting on other patrons, and six months later indecently assaulting a woman in a night club. (Image: SBS.com)

Is Thierry Henry Muslim? Speculation swirls. The French Catholic striker made remarks during a 2008 interview with Aljazeera that many took to mean he was in process of switching to Islam, saying that his friends like Eric Abidal and Franck Ribery had also converted. But did he go though with it? Only Henry (and Allah) knows. (Image: hubpages.com)

Playing for the other team: 9 athletes who converted to Islam

As a college freshman, one of the best centers in American pro basketball left Catholicism and abandoned his birth name - Lew Alcindor - to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, "the manifestation of my African history, culture and beliefs" as he wrote in an OpEd in Al Jazeera. (Image: Public Domain)

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