In a response on Twitter, Collis confirmed that he has converted.
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Mr Collis is married to Syrian Huda al-Mujarkech.
Mr Collis’ conversion to Islam emerged after pictures were posted on Twitter earlier this week of him and his wife at the Haj dressed in the traditional Ihram robes at the front of the royal seal at the gate of the British Consulate in Mecca.
Collis and his wife, replied “Thank you and Eid Mubarak”, to the well wishers and wished them a blessed Eid festival. He has since revealed he converted to the faith shortly before their marriage in 2011.
A senior Saudi official, responding to Iranian criticism of Riyadh’s management of the haj pilgrimage, urged Iran to end what he called wrong attitudes toward Arabs and warned it against any use of force in its rivalry with the kingdom.
Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah returned almost SR500 million to 48,400 people who had fallen prey to unscrupulous companies that falsely claimed that they could organize Hajj for those desiring to perform the pilgrimage, local media reported.
In this Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016 photo, an African woman makes her way alone through the crowd towards a rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, required of able-bodied Muslims once in their life, brings the Islamic world together across its many languages, ethnicities and individual beliefs – something seen across the many faces of its female faithful.
His first ambassador post was in Doha, Qatar between 2005 and 2007. He is fluent in Arabic.
Tensions are running higher given a war by proxy between the two regional powers in Yemen, but also Syria and Iraq. He did most of his service in Middle East and South Asia.
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Collins is, however, not the first British diplomat to convert to Islam.
