More than three-quarters (77%) of Muslim Americans say they have always been a Muslim, while 23% say they converted to Islam; 9-in-10 (91%) converts to Islam were born in the United States, and almost three-fifths (59%) of converts to Islam are African American. Two-thirds (67%) of all converts to Islam in the U.S. came from Protestant churches, 10% came from Catholicism, and just 5% from other religions. Nearly one-in-seven converts to Islam (15%) had no religion before their conversion. A 55% majority of converts identify with Sunni Islam and another quarter (24%) identify with no specific tradition. Only 6% of Muslim converts in America identify themselves as Shia. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.