Omar Sharif: Religious leanings

Sharif in 2013   (Photo by Georges Biard)

Christian, Muslim, Jew…  Omar Sharif has been called all of these, and none of these.

Born Michael Chalhoub into a Christian family, Sharif later converted to Islam after falling in love with wife-to-be Faten Hamama.

In 2002, Sharif told an interviewer:  Shirts I change several times a day, but I only changed religion once.  He then confided that he had embraced Islam out of love for Hamama.

Sharif went on to explain that he “was not particularly a believer,” and that “it is absurd” for people to “kill by the flags or national anthems.”

Five years later, however, Sharif stated the following:  “I am a man who believes in God, I love him, I fear him…”  Celebatheist.com reported that Sharif claimed to have faith

in Islam, describing it as “the religion that I followed and loved since 1954…”

In 2012, Sharif appeared to have another change of heart.  Albawaba reported that he then “converted from Islam to the Jewish mystic Kabbalah sect.”  After attending “a number of religious meetings held for European Jews,” Sharif felt moved in this new direction.

Sharif had summed up his religious history with these words:  I believe in God and I believe in religion, but I believe religions should belong to you.    

Resources

http://www.albawaba.com/entertainment/omar-sharif-kabbalah-433129

http://www.celebatheists.com/wiki/Omar_Sharif

Copyright July 11, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved