Liam Neeson Says He Considered Conversion To Islam

Liam Neeson has said that he was so enthralled by Islam while filming in Istanbul that he considered converting.

Neeson was raised a Roman Catholic, and was even named after the local priest in his hometown of Ballymena, County Antrim.

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But the 59-year-old actor said that it was the call to prayer and the beauty of the mosques in Turkey’s most famous city that drew him in, according to The 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 said.

“There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim.”

Neeson, who in recent years has reinvented himself as something of a latter day action star, filmed parts of ‘Taken 2’ in the city, back in 2011.

Speaking further about his spiritual side, he added: “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 has previously said that it was the sermons of the Protestant minister Ian Paisley, whose Presbyterian church Neeson would sneak into, which first turned him towards acting.

“He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch him just Bible-thumping away… it was acting, but it was also great acting and stirring too,” he told the BBC.

Image credit: Getty/Studio Canal

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