List of converts to nontheism

This list of converts to nontheism includes individuals who formerly identified with a religion but have rejected their former religion, becoming nontheist.

Former Buddhists

Former Christians

Former Hindus

• Kamal Haasan – despite being born into a Hindu Brahmin family, declared himself an atheist
• Goparaju Ramachandra Rao – Indian activist for atheism; wrote in We Become Atheists, "I was conventionally orthodox and superstitious in the days of my boyhood. I believed in the claims of divine revelations by my parental aunt."
• Ram Gopal Varma – born into a Hindu family; claimed himself atheist
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar – president of Hindu Mahasabha; founder of the Hindutva movement; atheist; did not define "Hindutva" by religion, and used to publicly advertise lectures on atheism and the non-existence of God
• Shreela Flather, Baroness Flather of Windsor and Maidenhead – first Hindu woman in British politics; described herself as a "Hindu atheist"
• Rajeev Khandelwal – Indian film and television actor; states himself an atheist
• Doja Cat - American rapper and singer; born to an Ashkenazi Jewish mother and practiced Hinduism for 4 years.

Former Jews

Former Muslims

• As'ad Abu Khalil – Lebanese professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus; describes himself as an "atheist secularist"
• Zackie Achmat – South African anti-HIV/AIDS activist; founder of the Treatment Action Campaign
• Ismail Adham – Egyptian writer and philosopher
• Mina Ahadi – Iranian-born pacifist, founder of the German organization Central Council of Ex-Muslims
• Javed Akhtar – Indian writer, lyricist, TV show host, secular and nationalist activist
• Mirza Fatali Akhundov – 19th-century Azerbaijani playwright and philosopher
• Waleed Al-Husseini – Qalqilyan blogger, writer, secular humanist, and founder of the Council of Ex-Muslims of France
• Ramiz Alia – Albanian communist leader and former president of Albania
• Bisi Alimi – Nigerian gay rights activist based in the United Kingdom
• Kareem Amer – Egyptian blogger
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – Turkish field marshal, statesman, secularist reformer, and author; a deist or an atheist
• Humayun Azad – Bangladeshi author, poet, scholar and linguist
• Hassan Bahara – Moroccan-Dutch writer
• Pelin Batu – Turkish actress and television personality
• Hafid Bouazza – Moroccan-Dutch writer
• Parvin Darabi – Iranian-born American writer and women's rights activist
• Turan Dursun – Turkish author; was once a Turkish mufti; later authored many books critical of Islam
• Afshin Ellian – Iranian professor
• Enver Hoxha – Communist dictator who declared Albania the first atheist state
• Ismail Kadare – World-renowned Albanian writer
• Sarmad Kashani – 17th-century mystical poet and sufi saint; arrived from Persia to India; beheaded for assumed heresy by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb; renounced Judaism, briefly converting to Islam and then Hinduism; later denounced all religions and rejected belief in God
• Raheem Kassam – British conservative activist
• Al-Ma'arri – blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer
• Lounès Matoub – Algerian Berber Kabyle singer and activist
• Asif Mohiuddin – Bangladeshi blogger and secularist
• Seema Mustafa – Indian journalist, political editor and Delhi Bureau Chief of The Asian Age newspaper
• Maryam Namazie – Iranian communist, political activist and leader of the British apostate-organization Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
• Kumail Nanjiani – Pakistani American stand-up comic and actor
• Taslima Nasrin – Bangladeshi author, feminist, human rights activist and secular humanist
• Armin Navabi – Iranian-born atheist and secular activist, author, podcaster and vlogger, known as founder of the popular website Atheist Republic.
• Aziz Nesin – Turkish humorist and author of more than 100 books
• Asad Noor – Bangladeshi blogger and human rights activist
• Barack Obama Sr. – Kenyan senior governmental economist, and the father of Barack Obama
• Catherine Perez-Shakdam – French Jewish journalist, political analyst and commentator; formerly a marital convert to Sunni Islam
• Ibn al-Rawandi – 9th-century early skeptic of Shia Islam, of Persian origin
• Salman Rushdie – British-Indian novelist and essayist
• Nyamko Sabuni – Politician in Sweden
• Zohra Sehgal – Indian actress who has appeared in several Hindi and English language films
• Anwar Shaikh – British author of Pakistani descent
• Dr. Younus Shaikh – Pakistani medical doctor, human rights activist, rationalist and free-thinker
• Ali Soilih – Comorian socialist revolutionary; president of the Comoros
• Wafa Sultan – Syrian-born American psychiatrist; controversial critic of Islam; describes herself as a "secular humanist"
• Arzu Toker – Turkish-born German writer, journalist, publicist and translator; founder of the German organization Central Council of Ex-Muslims
• Cenk Uygur – Turkish-American co-founder and main host of the progressive talk radio show The Young Turks; agnostic
• Ibn Warraq – British Pakistani secularist author; founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society

Former Shintos

References

Works cited