The Conversion of Canadian Religious Studies Professor Ingrid Mattson to Islam

From the halls of the Louvre to leading Muslims in America… the journey of Dr. Ingrid Mattson from art to Islam.
♦️ Dr. Ingrid Mattson is a professor of religious studies at Hartford Seminary in the U.S. state of Connecticut. She was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, and studied philosophy and aesthetics at the University of Waterloo.
Mattson embraced Islam in her final year of university studies and traveled to Pakistan in 1987, where she worked with refugees for a year. She earned her PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999.
♦️ Her story of conversion:
Ingrid grew up Christian but was not particularly religious. Her interest in Islam began through her love of art. She recounts visiting major museums in Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago, until she visited the Louvre Museum in Paris, where she was deeply fascinated by painting across different periods of human history.
♦️ She then met a group of Muslims and said about them:
“I met people who did not build statues or sensory images of their God. When I asked them, they explained Islam’s strong caution against idolatry and the worship of individuals, and that knowing God is very simple through reflection on His creations.”
From that moment, Ingrid began her journey to understand Islam, which eventually led to her conversion. She then pursued knowledge and became active in Islamic outreach.
♦️ Her contributions:
Ingrid established the first Islamic chaplaincy program in the United States. In 2001, she was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has around 20,000 members across the U.S. and Canada and oversees about 350 mosques and Islamic centers. Mattson was the first woman to hold this position in the organization’s history.
♦️ She received her PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago in 1999, with a focus on equality in Islam. She works as a professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. She was elected vice president in 2001 and later president in 2006 of ISNA, one of the most prominent Islamic organizations in the United States.
♦️ She is a political activist highly respected in religious and political circles in the U.S. She has been a prominent guest at many U.S. State Department events, spoke at the religious service of the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008, and participated in the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama. She noted that he was proud of his Muslim heritage and could have easily changed his name for a small fee, which is common in the U.S., but chose to keep his full name.
♦️ She works to present Islam more accurately to the American public and to counter the rise of “anti-Islam” sentiment. She calls on American media, which she says often distorts Islam and spreads fear of Muslims, to be more accurate and objective in their coverage.
♦️ Ingrid stated that Muslims must define themselves because Muslim women are often viewed negatively. She rejected claims about the difficult status of women in Islamic societies.
♦️ Responding to misconceptions expressed by Pope Benedict XVI, which she said reflected a lack of understanding of Islam, Ingrid expressed her “disappointment” at his remarks on Islam, jihad, and violence. She clarified that “linking Islam to a religion inherently rooted in violence is incorrect,” adding that comparing violence committed in the name of the Church and that committed in the name of Islam would take a long time—referring to the Inquisition and the Crusades.
♦️ She also told the press:
“Islam was not revealed only for Black or brown people. Strangely, when a Black American becomes Muslim, people say that is understandable, but when I, a white woman, become Muslim, they say I have betrayed my faith—as if I must choose between my race and Islam.”
♦️ Ingrid also addressed the topic of the hijab, noting that there are differing opinions. Should a woman cover her hair, face, shoulders, arms, or feet? She explained: “Hijab means covering. According to Islamic tradition, a Muslim woman should cover her body outside the home. Should she cover her hair? The majority of scholars support that view.”