Shaun King pictured on March 8, 2017, in Seattle, Washington. | Source: Karen Ducey / Getty
Videos and photos on social media showing Shaun King and his wife speaking in an apparent Arabic dialect with a religious official while dressed in traditional Muslim garb were going viral on Sunday amid reports the former Christian pastor now “embraces Islam.”
A social media account with more than 200,000 followers that describes itself as sharing “Positive stories about Muslims” posted video footage of Shaun and Rai King accompanied by the following message: “Writer and activist Shaun King and his wife have embraced Islam. Allahu Akbar.”
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The video had been liked thousands of times shortly after it was posted on Sunday night, which also marked the start of Ramadan, a major Islamic holiday.
The person with whom the Kings are speaking in the video was Dr. Omar Suleimon, who identifies himself as an imam – a religious Muslim leader – “originally” from Palestine, the same place where innocent women and children have been under siege amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
It’s also where Shaun King has been ardently advocating for.
Did Shaun King really convert to Islam?
The imagery going viral on social media suggested Shaun King had converted to Islam.
Marc Lamont Hill — the author, college professor and TV pundit who was famously fired by CNN for publicly condemning the treatment of Palestinians in Israel — posted a video Sunday night entitled, “Shaun King Converts to Islam!!!”
Shaun King’s page on Wikipedia, which is notoriously user-generated and can be edited on a whim, claimed without any citation that “He became Muslim along with his family on the first day of Ramadan 2024.”
Aside from the Palestinian advocacy work and activism, the reported conversion is especially notable because Shaun King has previously spoken openly about how important his Christian faith was to him.
In one Facebook post from 2016, Shaun King wrote that he was “a Christian” who was “actually a pastor for nearly 10 years.” In another Facebook post a little more than a year later, Shaun King wrote that he “was a Christian pastor for nearly 15 years.”
The Islamic Society of North America’s website says Shaun King used to be “a pastor at Total Grace Christian Center in DeKalb County, Georgia.”
According to Pew Research Center data from 2018, it is typical for many more Muslims to convert to Christianity than the other way around.
Shaun King and Palestine
Shaun King’s advocacy for the Palestinian people has come largely in the form of social media activity. But in December, he announced that one of his main advocacy avenues – Instagram – had banned his account because, as he said, he was “fighting for Palestine.”
In a subsequent Facebook post, King explained that “Instagram has banned me for fighting for Palestine, and speaking up for the human rights and dignity of Palestinians.”
In the Facebook post, King accused Israel of “genocide” and said he had been using his Instagram account to help show the world the atrocities faced by Palestinians who were also using their accounts to share the unspeakable imagery of death and injuries, including those of innocent women and children.
Shaun King had devoted his Instagram to documenting the plight of Palestinians amid the conflict in Gaza ever since the Hamas militant group launched a deadly attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
As of Sunday night, Shaun King’s Instagram account remained deactivated.
Nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 72,000 injured and about 300,000 have been facing famine since that violence erupted, according to data from Al Jazeera.
Shaun King is among a growing number of Black Americans who are showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, whose experiences in the face of terror have been likened to the Black experience in the U.S.
Shaun King’s reputation
Despite the righteous imagery of Shaun King and his wife “embracing Islam,” there was also a good amount of skepticism expressed on social media in a nod to how the activist has for years been dogged by unfounded allegations of scamming in an effort to line his pockets via online donations.
“Shaun King timing his conversion to Islam on the first night of Ramadan to maximize exposure,” one account on X, formerly Twitter, posted. “Incredible unserious stuff.”
Another wrote: “I don’t care that Shaun King just reverted to Islam. We can question everything.”
It was likely that type of doubt that prompted Shaun King last month to reassure his faithful followers on Facebook that there was nothing nefarious about his efforts to advocate on behalf of Palestine in part through fundraising.
“100% of the money I’ve raised for any person or organization in Palestine goes to that person or organization. Period,” Shaun King wrote at the time. “Anybody saying otherwise is either a liar, a Zionist, a plant, or ignorant.”
Shaun King insisted that he “NEVER a single day in my life kept, held, possessed, or otherwise even touched a PENNY I’ve raised for a family or organization. In Gaza. In America. Or anywhere else. The money I raise NEVER comes to me. It always goes straight to families.”
He called people who don’t believe him “a liar straight from hell.”
He also oncluded the lengthy post with a promise that he has seemingly made good on: “I will NEVER stop.”
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