Mahershala Ali Becomes First Muslim to Win Acting Oscar
Religion News Service’s Kimberly Winston reports, “With his win for portraying a drug dealer with a father’s heart in the film ‘Moonlight,’ Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to take home an acting Oscar.” Ali won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor on Sunday. On the radio show “Fresh Air,” Ali described his conversion to Islam, which happened after he visited a Philadelphia mosque in 1999. “I felt really grounded at that time, and so to be in this prayer and the imam is doing the prayer in Arabic, and I don’t understand a word of Arabic, but I just remember these tears just coming down my face, and it just really connecting to my spirit in a way that felt like I needed to pay attention to that.”