Familiar face, new name

Tom Heinen reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Muhammad Isa Sadlon, formerly Christopher Goldsmith, began work Monday as executive director and CEO of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.

In addition to formerly serving as executive director of the Milwaukee Art Museum and as vice president of facility development of the YMCA in Milwaukee

His local connections include having served as president of the Milwaukee Public Library Board and the Milwaukee Artists Foundation, as a director of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and as a member of the Milwaukee Plan Commission.

Those aren't all his formerlies.

Raised a Catholic, Sadlon graduated from Christ King School and Marquette University High School. He also was an altar boy.

So what did he find in Islam that was missing from Catholicism as he knew it?

Sadlon liked the concept of a universal Islam that taught submission to God's will and considered Jesus and Moses as prophets.

"That just felt like the right thing to me," he said. "I also felt that the concept that there is a proper way that God wants us to behave 24-7 makes a lot of sense to me, that religion is something that really should drive your economic life, your social life, all aspects of your life."

Update: Rachel Martin reported at NPR on Latinas Choosing Islam over Catholicism.

(via comment by Papa-Lu at Open Book)

Update 2: While Minnesota's Keith Ellison may be first Muslim in U.S. Congress,

Ellison was raised a Catholic in Detroit and converted to Islam while attending university.