Oliver Stone’s Son Converts to Islam

Image by Getty Images
In what sounds like a plot twist from one of his famous father’s films, 27-year-old Sean Stone — Oliver’s offspring — has reportedly converted to Islam on a trip to Iran.
According to the Tehran Times, the younger Stone, himself an aspiring director, underwent the conversion while attending the 30th Fajr International Film Festival, which ended Sunday. “Stone said he had become a Shia Muslim and had chosen the name Ali,” the paper said.
“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with,” Stone fils told Agence France-Presse by phone from the Iranian city of Isfahan. “It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets.”
Sean — or Ali — has already shown a penchant for angering conservatives just like his father, according to the New York Daily News. In an interview last September, he drew criticism for remarks defending Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that country’s right to build nuclear missiles.
“[Ahmadinejad] did come to America to extend a hand. And there’s a lot of mistranslation, literally, I’ve seen it. Ahmadinejad will say something and it will be mistranslated,” Stone said at the time. “A lot of this is bull—, mistranslation. It’s an aggressive attitude on both parts, mostly on the American side.”
There has yet to be any public reaction from Stone’s father, who is half-Jewish by birth and currently a Buddhist. Sean Stone’s mother is Christian, the Daily News said.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Yeshiva University rescinds approval for LGBTQ+ student club
-
Fast Forward Rumeysa Ozturk ordered free on bail, after judge says op-ed criticizing Israel is insufficient to justify detention
-
Culture Everything you need to know about every Pope Leo — even the antisemitic Leo and the one with the elephant
-
Culture A pocket guide to the Jewish grandmothers of Mexico
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.