Liam Neeson Converting to Islam?

By Sami K. Martin, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Liam Neeson has stated that he is considering converting from Roman Catholicism to Islam.

In a new interview with The Sun, a British paper, the actor spoke about his recent trip to Istanbul. "The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy. Then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing."

He added, "There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim. I was reared a Catholic, but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about? I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism."

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Neeson was raised in Northern Ireland. He came to the United States in the early 1990's and found great success with roles in "Schindler's List," "Star Wars" and more recently "Love Actually" and "Taken." Neeson married actress Natasha Richardson in 1994, who tragically died in a skiing accident in 2009.

He has two sons who he has raised in the Catholic tradition, though he has often discussed religious plurality, and Islam in particular. In 2003 he discussed the spiritual practices of St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuit tradition.

"I found out in the jungles of South America that Stanislavsky [author of 'An Actor Prepares'] had based his technique on the Spiritual Exercises (of Ignatius). It was a real revelation to me, and it brought two parts of my life together. The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor, and I found out acting could be a form of prayer."

He came under fire in 2010 for suggesting that Aslan, the central figure in C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" who Neeson provided the voice for was not Christ but "a Christ-like figure but also, for me, Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries. That's who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids-that's what he means for me."

Lewis's former secretary, Walter Hooper, responded to Neeson's comments by saying, "It has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. Lewis would have simply denied that. He wrote that the 'whole Narnian story is about Christ.'"

Neeson, however, provided the voice of the lion in that movie and the sequel.