Conversion Of Muslims Research Articles

Islam as the Problem, Christianity as the Solution

Abstract This article analyses Christian missionaries working on converting Muslim Iranians to Christianity. Their methods are based on a logic of rupture and discontinuity with Islam, presenting Christianity as the solution to a moral-political crisis of Iranians in the Islamic Republic. Anti-Islam is the focus of this conversion discourse. In a transnational Christian network formed by Iranians and non-Iranians, the evangelical missionaries work with methodology that breaks and dialogues with society and the local culture of their target audience, presenting evangelical Christianity as an alternative for Iranians. This research was carried out based on participant observation in missionary groups and Christian churches for Iranians, via digital media and face-to-face, contributing to the understanding of the conversion of Muslims to evangelical Christianity.

Proselytes of a New Nation: Muslim Conversions to Orthodox Christianity in Modern Greece. By Stefanos Katsikas

Proselytes of a New Nation: Muslim Conversions to Orthodox Christianity in Modern Greece. <i>By Stefanos Katsikas</i>

The Perspective of Peace or Fear for the Future? An Attempt to Evaluate Christian-Muslim Dialogue

The paper indicates the diagnosis the Christian-Muslim dialogue conducted by the Catholic Church, especially taking into account the indications of the Second Vatican Council. The question arises whether the mutual discourse of the representatives of the two religions is currently giving rise to a perspective of peace, or rather fear for the future? There is no denying that militant Islam accentuates the escalation of violence. These behaviors can give rise to fear and questions about the possibility of coexistence in this world. These events build up the circumstances of our time, which theology must to explain. To examine the wider context, the teaching of Vatican II on dialogue with Islam was recalled, and the teaching and actions of the post-Conciliar popes were recalled. This effort clearly indicated the possibility of cooperation, but also delineated the limits, which the Church must not cross. Therefore, although there is a real opportunity to develop joint projects, there are also significant limitations. Moreover, as practice shows, the Church's benevolent gestures often fall on deaf ears, and it seems that this effort is inadequate to the expected fruits of dialogue. Therefore, the possibility of dialogue can be discovered in Catholic Mariology. The person of Mary can become the reason for Muslims to turn to Christianity, which is shown by certain indications of the piety of the followers of Islam towards Mary. It is also an important premise for the Church to rely less on human action and strategy lined with diplomacy and politics. It is necessary to pray much more for the conversion of Muslims, so that God Himself may do the work of changing the hearts of the followers of Islam.

Kolejna książka o. Dariusza Wiśniewskiego, czyli kilka uwag na temat publikacji Franciszkanie i islam w XIII wieku, Poznań 2020, ss. 243

Fr. Dariusz Wiśniewski devoted his next book to the complicated and still relevant problem of the inter-religious relations between Latin Christians and Muslims. This time he has focused on the activity of St. Francis and the Order of Friars Minor during the 13th century. In those days, the Latin Christians were involved in the Crusades, missions and diplomatic affairs in Iberia, North Africa and the Holy Land. St. Francis and the Franciscans were among the loyal supporters of the papacy. At some point they had created their own policy towards Muslims as well. The author of the book brought the opinion that St. Francis and his disciples were fanatic pacifists in question. He proved that both the authorities and the members of the Order accepted the Crusades and missions as a different, but still acceptable way leading to the conversion of Muslims as the idea of preaching the Gospel of Christ to all the people in the world was one of the most important tasks of the Order. One may criticise some of the author’s decisions regarding the structure of the book and question some of his opinions that were not proved sufficiently. Fr. Dariusz Wiśniewski’s book is nevertheless both interesting and inspiring as it proves that there are several serious problems to be discussed and solved regarding this particular topic.

Preserving Child's Faith in Malaysian Law: A Maqasidic Approach

Preserving faith is the most significant goal for Muslims. However, fulfilling these objectives in the best possible way according to the principle of maqāṣid al-sharī’ah(the objective of Islamic law) within the framework of the dual system of Malaysian law is challenging. Preserving faith within maqāṣid al-sharī’ah discussion provides enormous opportunities for Muslims to nurture and protect their Islamic faith while regulating the laws that prohibit any harmful elements that could jeopardize it. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia guarantees everyone's freedom of religion. However, freedom of religion provided under Malaysian law has restrictions due to the uniqueness of Malaysian history. This article critically discusses the maqasidic-approach adopted to preserve Muslim child's faith. This article examines the government's effort to maintain Muslim child's faith concerning the laws and policies of education and Malaysian law on issues linked to the conversion of Muslims to other faiths and vice versa. The court decision on child's religion cases indicates a distinct feature of Muslim and non-Muslims' right to freedom of religion under Malaysian law. There are prospects for utilizing the maqāṣid al-sharī’ah framework effectively to promote the preservation of a child's faith in the context of Malaysian law.

Emigration of Christians from the Bosnian Eyalet (1683-1718)

The end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century was marked by radical changes on the demographic map of the Bosnian Eyalet as a serhat of the Ottoman state. In addition to mass migrations of the Muslim population from the lost Ottoman territories towards the interior of the Bosnian Eyalet, there were also continuous movements of the Christian population in the opposite direction. The paper follows the movements of some groups of Christians, mainly those who respond to the bishop's call to settle the desolate areas around Pécs, Szeged, Baja and the surrounding area, but also the migration of other non-Muslim populations towards the Venetian territory, as well as migrations to the „Imperial lands“ due to various political, economic and other factors. While the Venetian government encouraged, with money and investiture, the people to bring families to Dalmatia, and the Austrian government received petitions from the priests of Bosnian monasteries about the difficult situation of Catholics, the Ottoman government throughout that time undertook activities to stop defections, therefore, the paper describes some of the procedures and the situations themselves. Some authors exaggerate when they say that, for example, between 100 and 200 thousand Catholics left Bosnia. The paper shows that according to some reports, 74 thousand Catholics lived in Bosnia before 1683, and 25 thousand half a century later. This is an acceptable number of emigrant Catholics compared to the exaggerations of some chroniclers. An important part of the work is the knowledge obtained from sources, who actually are the non-Muslims that go across the border from the interior and from the borders of the Bosnian Eyalet. Ottoman sources usually refer to both Catholics and Orthodox by the name „kefere“ (a collective noun denoting the non-Muslim population in general). For the Ottoman administration, the most important thing is that it is a category of non-Muslims in order to tax them according to that category. Due to such a situation, it is difficult to give a definitive number of Catholics or Orthodox in a certain period according to Ottoman sources. In the paper, we provide a limited analysis of the case according to some unpublished sources, so it can be seen how many Christians, heads of the household, remained in a certain area. Often, however, it is not possible to know whether they are Orthodox or Catholics, because there are no priests among them. Names are often a problem, too, because patronymics are rare, and names can be tied to a nomenclature common to both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. From the episcopal and friar reports, it can be seen that in that period, the conversion of Muslims also took place, so among the migrants to the north, for example, there were thousands of new Christians. The cities of Požega, Osijek and Brod also lost their Muslim population and hundreds of Catholics from Sarajevo, Kreševo, Modriča and Vrhbosna are coming to them. Registry books record their origin, especially in the first years of the 18th century. The Orthodox and Catholic population from the Herzegovina Sandžak settles mainly in the Boka Kotorska area. An extensive cadastral census from 1701 shows that among the people there are many who come from places that are not affected by war activities. The Orthodox population from Backa and Baranja goes to Slavonia and Srijem, but also to Ottoman territory. On the territory of the Republic of Dubrovnik, war refugees from the Bosnian ejalet are most often Vlachs, especially during the periods of the Moravian War (1684-1699) and the Venetian-Ottoman War (1714-1718). The Ottoman authorities demanded that these people be delivered to them, and the Dubrovnik authorities formally agreed, but they often helped the people to stay there or to go further by sea.

Thomas W. Seckler, Experiencing the Gospel: An Examination of Muslim Conversion to Christianity in Cambodia

Thomas W. Seckler, Experiencing the Gospel: An Examination of Muslim Conversion to Christianity in Cambodia

Muslim Converts to Orthodox Christianity during the Greek War of Independence, 1821–1832

This article explores the conversion of Muslims to Orthodox Christianity during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) and the first post-independence years as a case study which shows that religious boundaries in the Balkans do not seem to have been as insurmountable as one might think. The bonds between people of different religious affiliations, including Christians and Muslims, were not so loose in the chaotic period of the nineteenth century. Even though religious differences have always existed in South-eastern Europe, the inhabitants of that region have not always seen fellow humans with different religious affiliations as estranged others. Muslim converts to Christianity were ready to compromise their Islamic faith in exchange for security, social status, and well-being in the changed political and social environment created by Greek nationalism, with a view to advancing their professional opportunities and material interests in the new state. The Greek case is not unique. Religious conversions from Islam to Christianity occurred elsewhere in the region during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet, while Balkan historiographical literature has focused on the Islamization of Christians in the region during the Ottoman period, it has paid little attention to the inverse processes of Christianization of Muslims in the age of nationalism.

Review: The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition

Review: <i>The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition</i>

Approach of christian thought to islam in the middle ages: examples of Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter the Venerable, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas

Christian and Muslim relationships went through different processes in the 12th and the beginnings of 13th century. The Papacy and Bernard of Clairvaux had adopted negative attitude toward Islam and Mohammad at the time of crusade. It can be described as an antagonism in the best way. Peter the Venerable had become a more different approach. He wanted to convert Muslims with a more objective attitude by emphasizing to the words, the reasons, and the love, not to the weapons, the force and the hatred. The invitation of Peter to the words, the reasons and love gained a new dimension with Francis of Assisi. He appears as the key figure in transition missionary activities towards the Muslim world. That is why he has been called as model for human liberation, the peaceful crusader and friends of Muslims by some researchers and scholars. As for some researchers, he was a model for the conversion of Muslims and not a model for friends of them. Thomas Aquinas had engaged in scientific missionary activities and pointed out a negative manner towards Muslims and Islam. The aim of the essay is to assess the view of medieval Christianity toward Islam in the context of Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter the Venerable, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas.

Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World by David Wacks

Reviewed by: Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World by David Wacks Mary-Anne Vetterling Wacks, David. Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World. U of Toronto P, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-48750-501-1. Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World is a very scholarly book that focuses on crusade literature written in Spain between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is carefully written, extensively researched and contains a fascinating new approach to the subject. In his introduction, Wacks situates Medieval Iberia in a multilingual Mediterranean environment. He convincingly portrays the difference between Northern European crusades (to the [End Page 135] East, especially to Jerusalem) and those located in Iberia, during the re-conquest. He mentions how the holy site of Santiago de Compostela and the relics in Seville and Toledo helped justify the conversion of Jews and Muslims in the name of a “holy war,” an ideal subsequently carried to the New World by the Conquistadores. In the first chapter, Wacks analyzes a little-known work of thirteenth-century (1250) crusade literature in Arabic (Andalusi) named Ziyad ibn ‘Amir al-Kinat in the greater context of Medieval Iberian, Latin, French and Arabic literatures. He carefully notes the Northern European (especially Arthurian), Iberian and Arabic influences on this work, in which the author’s hero converts the “pagans” (in this case, Christians) to Islam. He includes a fascinating segment on astrology. He translates into English key passages from this work, which are a delight to read, especially in the context of the background provided. The Ziyad is an example of crusader-inspired fiction from non-Christian-dominant societies. Chapter 2 focuses on the Libro del Caballero Zifar (1300). Wacks includes details about the Andalusi-French-Latin-Arabic background to this book and makes several extremely important points about its source and authorship. The Zifar is based on a tale of St. Eustace yet also draws on Arabic sources, with the use of Arabic place names and quasi-Arabic personal names and narrative motifs. Wacks convincingly demonstrates that the putative author of the Zifar, Ferrant Martínez (an elite member of the Church of Toledo) used the prologue to his book to publicize the return of the bones (sacred relics) of Cardinal Gudiel from Rome to Spain, thus strengthening the role of Christianity in Toledo. Furthermore Wacks finds two passages in the Zifar that appear to be from an imaginative tradition linked to Celtic and Arthurian literatures with parallel passages in the Ziyad. Zifar’s polygamy, argues Wacks, could also be inspired by Ziyad’s. The way in which Zifar is described as a hero-knight links him with the crusader/converter mentality. The Zifar illustrates Christian-Iberian crusading ideals being carried out in a fictionalized Eastern location. Wacks, in chapter 3, focuses on Ramon Lull’s work of fiction, Blaquerna (1287–1289), and its historical and literary background. He concentrates on Lull’s other writings as keys to an understanding of Blaquerna. He points out that Lull had a sophisticated understanding of Islam doctrine, thanks to his studies of Arabic, which he learned in order to convert the entire world to Christianity through persuasion. The hero Blaquerna is a religious person, a member of a chivalric crusading order, and even becomes Pope. Wacks has translated a number of passages from this book and provides their originals in Catalán in the footnotes. Blaquerna demonstrates a different kind of crusade mentality which is missionary in nature and consists of conquering through persuasion, not through battle. Chapter 4 includes a detailed analysis of the Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor (c. 1290) and its historical background. Wacks stresses the importance of the fact that this fictional tale (possibly translated from a manuscript in Arabic that is, however, most likely an invention of the author) is different from its French counterpart because of the role that Moorish Spain and Arabic culture play in the tale. The Crónica contains historical material interwoven with a fictional tale in such a way as to serve the political purposes of various Spanish monarchs. One fascinating detail from this story is that the daughter of Flores and Blancaflor becomes the mother of Charlemagne...

Book Review: Experiencing the Gospel: An Examination of Muslim Conversion to Christianity in Cambodia

Book Review: Experiencing the Gospel: An Examination of Muslim Conversion to Christianity in Cambodia

The Arts of Everyday Peacebuilding: Cohabitation, Conversion, and Intermarriage of Muslims and Christians in the Southern Philippines

The Arts of Everyday Peacebuilding: Cohabitation, Conversion, and Intermarriage of Muslims and Christians in the Southern Philippines

Book Review: Ayman Ibrahim and Ant Greenham. Muslim Conversions to Christ: A Critique of Insider Movements in Islamic Contexts

Book Review: Ayman Ibrahim and Ant Greenham. Muslim Conversions to Christ: A Critique of Insider Movements in Islamic Contexts

Religious Conversion in Early Post‐Ottoman Bulgaria: A Case Study of Ruse

Under Ottoman rule, conversion to Islam took place in the Balkans in various forms often described as forced, voluntary or “conversion for convenience.” Islamic law, however, strictly forbade apostasy for Muslims, who risked the death penalty. Although the Ottoman reform of 1844 banned the execution of apostates from Islam and that of 1856 declared freedom of religion, Muslim conversion was carried out discreetly. In 1878, the establishment of the Bulgarian nation‐state paved the way for potential conversion from Islam to Christianity. This study examines the conversion of Muslims, Catholics, and to a lesser extent, Jews, to Bulgarian Orthodoxy and Protestantism in the city of Ruse. It shows that apostasy was a result of a complex interplay of loyalties, political dynamics, and self‐interests rather than purely religious principles. Specifically, it argues that Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Jews, perceived conversion as a way of developing a Bulgarian identity, whereas Catholic conversion to Orthodoxy was mostly marriage‐based and did not necessarily entail an intention to achieve a Bulgarian national identity. Moreover, the way that the Bulgarian Church processed the petitions shows a continuity from the practices that the Ottomans used when Christians and Jews converted to Islam during the Tanzimat Era.

Identity and Liminality: Jews, Conversos, Foreigners, and Muslims in Christian Ávila, 1440s–1492

This article explores the social, economic, and political history of religious minorities, Conversos, and foreigners in Ávila on the eve of the expulsion of Jews in 1492 and the forced conversion of Muslims in the early sixteenth century. During the late fifteenth century, the city had the largest Jewish population in late medieval Castile, as well as a substantial number of Muslims and Conversos. For a variety of reasons-including the income derived from transhumance of Ávila’s ruling secular and ecclesiastical groups; land and urban rents; the size of the city within the walls that created the conditions for daily commingling; and the Jews’ and Muslims’ invaluable roles as merchants, artisans, and financiers-the city became a fairly safe place for Jews and Muslims. It also provided a refuge for Castilian Jews and Conversos fleeing widespread violence elsewhere in 1391 and afterward. While addressing briefly the larger issues that made Ávila different from most other towns in Castile and Iberia, my focus here is on three case studies. They serve as lenses through which to examine the nature of a multireligious city on the eve of the erasure of religious diversity in Iberia. In these case studies, I emphasize familial networks, economic activities, political agency, and the manner in which Jews, Muslims, Conversos, and foreigners (deployed here for comparative purposes) sought to assert their identity and lessen municipal and royal efforts to diminish their privileges and exemptions

“A Desora Desperto y vio una Grand Claridat”: The Role of Dreams and Light in the Construction of a Multi-Confessional Audience of the Miracles of the Virgin of Guadalupe

This paper examines the religious proselytizing agenda of the order of Saint Jerome that ruled the Extremaduran sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe since 1389. To this end, I analyze how the Hieronymite’s used literary motifs such as dreams and light in the codex of the Miracles of the Virgin of Guadalupe to create a multi-confessional audience for their collection of miracles. I contend that these motifs were chosen because they were key elements in the construction of a particular image of the Virgin that could appeal to pilgrims of different faiths. Through them, the Hieronymites evoked in the minds of Muslim pilgrims and Christian captives beyond the sea the imagery and rhetoric of Sufi devotional literature and Islamic hagiography, in order to create a vision of the Virgin that was able to compete with the more important Islamic devotional figures: the Prophet, Sufi masters and charismatic saints. Finally, I explore how the possible influence of North African devotional models, such as the Shadhiliyya order or the hagiography of the Tunisian saint, Aisha al-Manubiyya, suggests that the aims of the monastic authors of this Marian miracles collection went far beyond the conversion of Castilian Muslims, aiming at the transformation of the Extremaduran Marian sanctuary of Guadalupe into a Mediterranean devotional center.

Muslims at the American Vigil

The 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting at a gay dance club in Florida fomented a surge in Islamophobia, as pundits blamed the perpetrator’s Muslim identity for his hateful act. In the aftermath of the violence, vigils across the United States offered forums for Muslim American and other groups to publically express their shared grief and to address homophobia and Islamophobia together. The people affected most intensely by the tragedy were LGBTQ Muslims, who were simultaneously subjected to both intensified homophobia and Islamophobia in the wake of the shooting. This local ethnographic study of Orlando vigils in Michigan examines how the Orlando aftermath encouraged debate about the issue of LGBTQ Muslim visibility and conversation about the potential for Muslim civic leaders and mosque leaders to serve as their allies. During the Orlando vigils, LGBTQ Muslims, allies, and faith leaders drew on, negotiated, and/or resisted various repertoires of mourning and advocacy. Their responses to the Orlando moment provide valuable information about how connections among faith, sexuality, race, and protest are shaping the emergence of LGBTQ Muslim visibilities in the United States today.

Latina Muslim Producers of Online and Literary Countermedia

Since 9/11, US English and Spanish language media have reported on the rise in Latino/a conversion to Islam. Western(ized) media images I examined for this essay about Latinas converting to Islam raise suspicions overpossible forced conversions, brainwashing, or abuse. What is evident and salient in these media portrayals, whether deliberately or unintentionally created, are the binaries (Western vs. non-Western, Christian vs. Muslim, and Arab vs. Latino) that limit understandings of how these women are self-empowered and make choices for themselves in their everyday lives as Latina Muslim converts. In effect, Western imperial ideologies and discourses in these media portrayals reinforce and normalize rigid state identitarian notions of Christian/Catholic Latinas living in Union City, New Jersey, a traditionally Catholic/Christian-majority and urban Cuban-majority/Latino immigrant enclave since the 1940s-1950s. Now more alarming is this post-9/11 moment when “the Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO) estimated that Latina women outnumbered their male counterparts and reached 60 per cent,” as part of a changing religious and ethnic demographic that includes Muslim Arab and South Asian populations amidst Latino/a populations. In my research, it soon became evident that a variety of media sources perceived Union City as a prime site of Latino/a Muslim conversion post-9/11. This essay offers a specific look at the way newsmedia has portrayed Latina Muslims in Union City and how the cultural productions of these women challenge simplistic and Islamophobic views of Latinas who have converted to Islam post-9/11.&#x0D; To download full review, click on PDF.

Latina Muslim Producers of Online and Literary Countermedia

Since 9/11, US English and Spanish language media have reported on the rise in Latino/a conversion to Islam. Western(ized) media images I examined for this essay about Latinas converting to Islam raise suspicions overpossible forced conversions, brainwashing, or abuse. What is evident and salient in these media portrayals, whether deliberately or unintentionally created, are the binaries (Western vs. non-Western, Christian vs. Muslim, and Arab vs. Latino) that limit understandings of how these women are self-empowered and make choices for themselves in their everyday lives as Latina Muslim converts. In effect, Western imperial ideologies and discourses in these media portrayals reinforce and normalize rigid state identitarian notions of Christian/Catholic Latinas living in Union City, New Jersey, a traditionally Catholic/Christian-majority and urban Cuban-majority/Latino immigrant enclave since the 1940s-1950s. Now more alarming is this post-9/11 moment when “the Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO) estimated that Latina women outnumbered their male counterparts and reached 60 per cent,” as part of a changing religious and ethnic demographic that includes Muslim Arab and South Asian populations amidst Latino/a populations. In my research, it soon became evident that a variety of media sources perceived Union City as a prime site of Latino/a Muslim conversion post-9/11. This essay offers a specific look at the way newsmedia has portrayed Latina Muslims in Union City and how the cultural productions of these women challenge simplistic and Islamophobic views of Latinas who have converted to Islam post-9/11.&#x0D; To download full review, click on PDF.