Hollywood star Liam Neeson is considering giving up his Roman Catholic beliefs and becoming a Muslim. The 59-year-old actor, admitted that Islamic prayer “got into his spirit” while filming in Istanbul, according to an Australian news website Herald Sun.
“The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing,” he told The Sun. “There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”
Neeson was raised in Northern Ireland as a devout Roman Catholic; “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.”
Neeson was born in 1952, in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and is the son of Katherine Kitty, a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a caretaker at the local Catholic boys’ primary school. The actor, who was ironically named after a local priest in his Irish hometown, is now willing to leave his Catholic roots behind and take on a journey of exploring another religion altogether.
Neeson 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, according to christianpost.com. “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.”
Liam was criticised in 2010 after claiming that the lion, Aslan — voiced by him in The Chronicles of Narnia — is not based on Christ as author CS Lewis had claimed, but in fact is a representation of all spiritual leaders including Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).
Sources: christianpost.com, heraldsun.com.au, IMDb, thesun.co.uk
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2012.
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