Controversial online influencer Andrew Tate converts to Islam

Andrew Tate has easily become one of the most controversial online influencers of the year. Acknowledged initially as a professional kickboxer who made his name known as a kickboxing world champion, Tate is now notorious for misogynistic comments about women on various platforms such as TikTok and Twitter. Despite these debasing comments he continues to make, he continues to amass thousands of supporters from across the globe.

On October 24th, Tate announced that he converted to Islam, shocking the entire Muslim world. Since his announcement on Twitter, videos of him praying with a Sheikh have circulated on the internet for weeks, causing a stir within the Muslim community. Many Muslim women and men have expressed concern following his conversion to the religion.

“I think his conversion to Islam is BS,” second-year NYU student Amina Hamawy said. “Some Muslims that I’m close to, mainly men, started praising Andrew Tate when he started talking about Islam and it’s really discouraging in relation to how many support him as well as the things he says.”

Tate claims to have converted to Islam because “any Christian who believes in good and understands the true battle against evil must convert,” according to his Twitter (@cobratate). Hamawy says that despite her usual reaction to converts to Islam, she doesn’t support Tate as a new Muslim.

“I don’t want to judge him but at the same time, I’m allowed to because as a Muslim woman, I’m impacted by the things he has said and continues to say,” Hamawy said. “He still has to atone for the things that he has done. Just because he converted to Islam doesn’t mean that women are going to like or trust him.”

Tate has a history of being removed from large social media platforms in relation to the commentary he has made on women’s rights and survivors of domestic violence. Tate was first removed from Twitter in 2017 in response to the #MeToo movement by saying that “women should bear some responsibility” for being assaulted, according to The Guardian. Noor Soliman, 19, has said that in addition to his negative commentary, he projects these ideas onto younger women that he dates.

“He is a 35-year-old man who dates women much younger than him so that he can make an imprint on them, and believes that women should be men’s property,” Soliman said. “His content has gone viral for the things he has said, and I am so disappointed that it has.”

Most recently, this past summer Tate was removed from major social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok following his larger-than-normal influence on younger audiences. Tate’s posts on TikTok where he expresses his sexist ideologies have been viewed over 12 billion times among its 571 million users, according to Demand Sage. As a result of Tate’s popularity, many young Muslims have worried about their religion’s portrayal in the media.

“This man literally says that he came to Islam because he wants to find a woman because women in Islam know their place,” Hamawy said. “Things like that that he says reflect on Muslims poorly because people will assume that all Muslims are like him.”

In addition to the portrayal of Muslims following Tate’s conversions, concerns about Tate’s views feeding into negative connotations of the religion have also surfaced. Third-year NYU student Alyssa Sultani said that she believes Tate’s acceptance of Islam may be a publicity stunt and will have a negative impact on the way non-Muslims view the religion.

“When I first heard about his conversion to Islam, I didn’t think it was sincere at all,” Sultani said. “The amount of research, devotion, and commitment it takes to convert to a new religion that you most likely don’t understand that much about is a lot. If such a controversial and famous figure is the face of religion, it could give a negative identity to other Muslims in the world.”

Many Islamic figures have responded to Tate’s misogynistic comments as well as his conversion to the religion. Khalid Latif, the University Chaplain for NYU’s Islamic Center, says that there are likely going to be mixed reactions from Muslims and non-Muslims to Tate’s conversion.

“Likely, there’s going to be people who are going to be more open to learning about Islam because of his conversion,” Latif said. “However, there still needs to be accountability for statements and behaviors that have really delegitimized women’s experiences and have gone beyond giving any doubt that clearly there are misogynistic perspectives.”

Latif says that in relation to public figures embracing these forms of toxic masculinity, he hopes to provide spaces for young Muslims who will be impacted by Tate’s conversion.

“I remember when Trump got elected in 2016, we hosted a series of safe spaces and conversations for people to join,” Latif said. “[Trump’s election] was very traumatic for a lot of survivors of abuse and it opened up many wounds. I think there tends to be a certain gap of empathy just amongst people in general.”

Many young women have expressed their worries and fears in relation to Tate’s presence on social media. However, following his conversion to Islam, young Muslim women have expressed their worries and fears that Tate will influence young Muslims to follow in his footsteps. Amira Shouman, the Associate Director at NYU’s Islamic Center, said it is important to find others who will not perpetuate Tate’s views on Islam.

“[It is important] to be in spaces together that will allow us to rely on allies who will help us be critical of wrong ideas, especially with men who follow Tate,” Shouman said. “If this is the group of people who are continuing to perpetuate his disgusting beliefs, those are the people who should also be standing side-by-side and saying that this is wrong.”

Mohamed Moteleb, 20, says that as a Muslim man, he hopes that Tate’s conversion doesn’t prove to be more detrimental than beneficial to followers of the religion.

“I think Tate’s conversion to Islam will give people a more negative view of Islam overall because he’s always a controversial topic,” Moteleb said. “A lot of people disagree with his points, including myself, so they might attribute that to Islam, which is incorrect. Hopefully, he’ll grow and that’ll be beneficial to Islam and its followers.”

As videos and tweets of Tate’s religious journey as well as his controversial presence on social media continue to be discussed and prevalent, members of the Muslim community continue to seek solace in each other from Tate’s toxicity.

“I feel like, for women in general, we have to constantly be on guard and just try and protect ourselves,” Shouman said. “Whether it’s physical safety or emotional safety and he’s just someone who is fueling the fire of allowing men to think that it is fine to treat women poorly. It’s really important to surround ourselves with people who are going to support us and offer us that care and love, both men and women.”