Muhammad Ali � Formerly Cassius Clay; three-time Heavy Weight
Champion of the World. He converted
to orthodox Islam in 1965. "I have had many nice moments in my life.
But the feelings I had while
standing on Mount Arafat (just outside Makka, Saudi Arabia) on the
day of the Hajj (the Muslim
pilgrimage), was the most unique. I felt exalted by the
indescribable spiritual atmosphere there as
over one and a half million pilgrims invoked God to forgive them for
their sins and bestow on them
His choicest blessings. It was an exhilarating experience to see
people belonging to different
colours, races and nationalities, kings, heads of state and ordinary
men from very poor countries all
clad in two simple white sheets praying to God without any sense of
either pride or inferiority.
It was a practical manifestation of the concept of equality in
Islam." source: Islam in America,
Jane Smith

Malcom X - Black-rights activist and religious leader. In 1964,
after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he
announced his conversion to orthodox Islam and his belief in the
possibility of brotherhood between
blacks and whites. "...America needs to understand Islam, because
this is the one religion that
erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in
the Muslim world, I have met,
talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been
considered white -- but the
"white" attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of
Islam. I have never before seen
sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together,
irrespecitve of their color. My
pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new insight. In
two weeks in the Holy Land, I saw what
I never had seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all
races, all colors, -- blue-eyed
blonds to black-skinned Africans -- in true brotherhood! In unity!
Living as one! Worshipping as
one! No
segregationists" . Autobiography of Malcolm X

Chris Eubank -- In March 1997, after former super middleweight world
champion Chris Eubank
defeated Camilo Alocon of Columbia at the Dubai Tennis Stadium in a
light heavyweight contest, Eubank
embraced Islam. The former boxer studied the Koran for three years
before becoming a Muslim and took
the name Hamdan.

MTV Presenter Kristiane Backer � Kristiana in her prime went to
Boston to interview the Rolling
Stones, and went on the road with Prince for a week. She was the
number-one woman on MTV and was
literally on television all the time. She presented the Coca-Cola
report and the European Top 20 and
interviewed bands and millions of people recognised her all over
Europe.
"I was still at MTV, still finding my faith, and I realised I wasn't
fulfilled by that whole rock
'n' roll lifestyle. I felt that what I was doing was pointless; it
wasn't a great contribution to
society. They wanted me to look good on camera, but I didn't want to
be a sex symbol any more. As
a modern westerner with a career, of course I had to look into
Islam's attitude to women. I
discovered that it is pro-women and pro-men."

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