Oliver Stone’s Son Converts to Islam
The son of award-winning Hollywood director Oliver Stone has converted to Islam in a ceremony in centralIran.
According to the Fars News Agency, Sean Stone became a Shiite Muslim in the historical city ofIsfahanlast month.
During his visit to the office of Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Nasseri Dowlatabadi, the 27-year-old chose Ali as his new Islamic name and recited the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith.
Born to a Jewish father and a Christian mother, the filmmaker told the agency that he was not abandoning either religion.
“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with,” Stone told the national agency.
“It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets.”
He did not say why he converted.
Mr Stone, a graduate from the Ivy League Princeton University, visited the Islamic republic in September 2011 to make a documentary.
According to the Tehran Times, Mr Stone travelled toIranlast month to look for locations for his documentary, which is on the poet Rumi and the Persian mysticism.
He needed to know more about the country’s culture, traditions and rituals.
Earlier last month, Mr Stone attended the Hollywoodism and Cinema conference inTehran, where he was honoured by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Other converted public figures include former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth, who changed her faith in Iran 2010 after having what she felt was a “holy experience.”
British actor Liam Neeson, who was inIstanbulfilming a sequel to 2008 thriller Taken, reportedly told the Sun that his time in the country “really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”
