(José Niño, Headline USA) Five former associates insist Rep. Cory Mills, R-FL., converted to Islam in 2014, but his girlfriend calls it a lie.
This saga began after a February 19 police response to Mills’ luxury penthouse, following a domestic disturbance involving Mills and his current girlfriend, Sarah Raviani. The incident, and the resulting police report, put the spotlight not only on the state of Mills’ relationships but also prompted media outlets like Blaze News to investigate his background more thoroughly.
Blaze News reported that five former associates of Mills confirmed he had converted to Islam when he married Iraq native Rana Al Saadi in 2014. The marriage was officiated by Mohammed Al-Hanooti, a controversial imam linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Hamas fundraising, per a report by The Daily Beast.
The ceremony reportedly took place at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia. This mosque has built a reputation for its strict adherence to Islamic law, which generally requires both parties to be Muslim in order to wed.
Max Woodside, CEO at Paladin LLC and Mills’ former team leader at the private military contractor DynCorp, went on the record with Blaze News about a pivotal conversation.
“He mentioned that he had a friend—I guess it’s his current wife that he’s divorcing, whatever the hell she is,” Woodside recalled. “I guess she was having problems with somebody over there. He said, ‘We need to go over there and take care of it.’ I said, ‘Brother, whatever we do is going to come back to you.’ … I said, ‘You’re always going to have problems because she’s a Muslim and you’re a Christian.’”
According to Woodside, Mills replied, “No, I converted. I’m a Muslim.”
Woodside said the admission was memorable, noting, “They’re my sworn enemy.” He added, “As far as the Muslim stuff [goes], I only heard him say it one time. I never saw him convert. I never saw him put any head rags on. He just told me he converted to Islam. I said, ‘All right, whatever, dude. We’re done.’”
Mills has forcefully denied the allegations. Sarah Raviani, his girlfriend, told the Daily Mail that “the claims made in the Blaze article are entirely untrue.”
She publicly confirmed their relationship for the first time and sought to clarify Mills’ faith: “He has not only attended church with my family and me, but we also pray together privately—just the two of us—where there would be no reason to pretend or perform for others. Additionally, we pray together publicly before meals. Any assertion that he is a Muslim is false, and I can personally attest to his Christian faith.”
Raviani also pointed to their shared Easter travels as further evidence of Mills’ Christian identity.
Despite these denials, four other former associates of Mills told Blaze News that he did convert to Islam at the time of his marriage, though most spoke anonymously out of fear of potentially facing reprisals.
Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch, questioned whether Mills could have been married at Dar Al-Hijrah without converting, given the mosque’s reputation and the requirements of Islamic law. “Sharia stipulates that a Muslim woman may not marry a Christian or any other non-Muslim man. This is based on the Qur’an. … A Muslim man may marry a Christian woman … but a Muslim woman cannot marry a Christian man,” Spencer explained.
Mills, for his part, described the situation as complicated.
He said his then-fiancée needed a marriage certificate to visit a dying relative in Iraq and that Al-Hanooti was the only imam willing to officiate. “I will do anything to protect my family. So if having her mother find someone who is willing to just sign something so she doesn’t get arrested when she goes to visit her dying uncle, who’s her last remaining male Al Saadi,” Mills said. “Yeah, you’re damn right, I have no problem whatsoever, because it didn’t change my faith, it didn’t change who I am, it didn’t change the church that I went to. So yeah, enjoy your hit piece.”
Blaze Media’s editor-in-chief, Matthew Peterson, said, “If Mills had simply admitted that, yes, he converted to Islam to marry a Muslim woman or help her visit her family or whatever, that would be one thing. Instead, he threatened Blaze Media with libel, defamation, malice, and slander before we published a word. I find that odd.”
Woodside, reflecting on Mills’ character, remarked, “He’s always going to say [whatever he needs] to get him whatever he wants, which makes him a good politician because that’s what they do.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
