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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dear star Liam Neeson
as a Muslim person i really appreciate you as a person looking for the truth and i sure that if you read the holy quran which contain a lot of advice to us to be leader in this world and to learn us how to build this world with love and forgiveness, from the beginning of Islam our prophet Mohammad concentrated on the ethics and these ethics must rule over all aspects of our life. with his family with his friends with his neighbors even if they were not Muslim our prophet Mohammad was dealing with them in love and forgiveness and respected them and even with his enemies through spreading Islam he was giving them three alternative 1- to be muslim 2- to pay money for the protection and cooperation 3- the last alternative was war without any cheat also our prophet Mohammad when he return to makka he forgave all persons get rid him from makka. if you read the opinion of most famous thinkers you will see that the most one who change in this world our prophet Mohammad, our holy quran has an effect on each person read or hear this holy book because our god said that this book related directly to the human nature and person know directly that this book is right, finally this book contain a lot of scientific fact that discovered today such as the volcano at the bottom of ocean and the and how the pure water dose not with salt water and a lot a lot of facts that you will be shocked when you read it after that you will realize that the islam is the truth religion and isalm respect all other religion and give the freedom for the person to choose among them
if any person need any information about islam i can provide him with it only he must send to me on my e-mail (ahabudouleh@yahoo.com) and i am sorry for the bad English language that i have
peace, mercy,and blessing pf god
There is no compulsion in Islam and very simple and straight forward to practice in daily life, God Bless Liam in the real spiritual world of Islam.