First Muslim Miss USA Converts to Christianity
A former Miss USA beauty pageant winner, who's believed to be the first Muslim to win the title, has now converted to Christianity.
Rima Fakih was crowned the winner in 2010 and according to a Middle Eastern news site, Albawaba, the Lebanese-American model gave her life to Christ last month ahead of her wedding.
Fakih, born a Shiite Muslim, is set to marry Catholic music producer Wassim Salibi on May 15th.
In late March, Fakih tweeted a picture of herself from the 2010 pageant that included a scripture from Philippians.
"
I can do all things through him who strengthens me," Fakih wrote.
Fakih later tweeted a picture of an inspirational message about God.
"Only God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, a victim into a victory," the message read.
In a 2010 interview with the Huffington Post, she said that although her family identifies as Muslims, religion doesn't define them.
"We're more of a spiritual family. Religion really doesn't define me or my family," Fakih explained. "My family's been very liberal, and we appreciate all different kinds of religions."
Fakih added that her and her family often celebrates Christian and Islamic holidays. She mentioned during the interview that some members of her family are openly Christian.
"I consider myself to be blessed. I have a family that is a mix of different religions and different ethnicities. My brother-in-law is Christian, and he (and my sister) baptized their two sons. I have an uncle who converted to Christianity, and he's a priest now," she said. "My family is Muslim. But none of this ever came up in our family. We don't look at religion as something that defines us, we look at religion as something that we respect, and something that teaches us about ethics."
She concluded the interview by saying that as Miss USA, she believed she could be a "Muslim ambassador" for the country.
"I feel like I can be a great representative. America is the land of opportunity, and people can live in America and be who they want to be," Fakih stated. "Don't deny your faith. Don't deny your ethnicity."
