Abstract
ABSTRACT Consideration of the growing phenomenon of converts to Islam in Britain is emerging at the moment when converts are entering the popular imagination through the dominant negative tropes of threat and betrayal. In this context, the religious aspect of conversion is feared, diminished, contained or ignored. Given the emphasis on either change or continuity, these identities are conceptualised as hybrid or multiple identities, with little understanding of the critical properties of religiosity. Based on narrative interviews with British converts to Islam, this article argues that, rather than emphasising continuity or change, it is in understandings of the dynamics between continuity and change that important facets of religious identity emerge as the central problematic of conversion. The concept of congruity is offered to reflect this. It is further argued that religiosity as the basis of this continuity better captures converts’ religious identities. Georg Simmel’s notion of religiosity is employed to make sense of their identities. Through this notion, Simmel’s thought enables a congruity to be read that transcends the apparent contradiction between continuity and change.
Highlights
Interest in both historical and contemporary British converts to Islam is limited but nascent and this picture is broadly similar across other European countries
Based on narrative interviews with British converts to Islam, this article argues that, rather than emphasising continuity or change, it is in understandings of the dynamics between continuity and change that important facets of religious identity emerge as the central problematic of conversion
The number of Britons converting to Islam has been increasing (Brice 2010, 10). During this time, Islam has become increasingly present in the popular psyche and this has happened in a context characterised by Islamophobia, in which the issues have been dominated by perceptions and frames of Islam as an ‘immigrant’ and ‘foreign’ religion
Summary
Interest in both historical and contemporary British converts to Islam is limited but nascent and this picture is broadly similar across other European countries. This article suggests that, as an exceptional figure in sociology in this regard, Simmel’s work provides fruitful ways for understanding these dynamics by taking seriously the convert’s good faith and religious identity To explore these issues, this article discusses narrative interviews with converts to Islam in Britain. The process of being ‘re-racialized’ as a result of becoming Muslim appears most strongly—and with much frustration and consternation—in relation to family and the local surroundings in which converts live their everyday lives Discussing her family’s reaction to her conversion, Emily noted how “he [her father] thinks that I’ve [in a tone of mock horror] ‘changed’” (personal interview, 23 January 2017) as she had moved into the position of ‘intimate stranger’ (Ramahi and Suleiman 2017). This is what allows a reading with the potential of unsettling currently dominant approaches to understanding and talking about religious identity
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