Religious Conversion Research Articles

Psychological Distress on Mualaf

Psychological distress is a harmful condition that can affect individuals directly or indirectly over time and affect physical health conditions and mental conditions. This study aims to determine the description of psychological distress in converts. This type of research is qualitative research with a phenomenological model and data collection methods carried out by in-depth interviews and documentation. The informants of this study were three people, one man was 59 years old and had converted to Islam for 36 years and two women, the first was 40 years old and had converted to Islam for 18 years, the second was 66 years old and had converted to Islam for 41 years. The results of this study indicate that the religious conversion experienced by the informant has a relationship with psychological distress, where the process follows the interpersonal and situational factors shared by the informant. The informant decides to convert to Islam. The interpersonal factors experienced by the informants occurred in the second stage of religious conversion, namely, the phase of unease. In this phase, religious teachings are believed to bring peace no longer or cause psychological distress to him. Informants make comparisons from the previous instructions to the teachings of Islam. The peak was the situational factor he experienced, namely the stage of religious conversion (mualaf) because the teachings in Islam are considered the right way and are more capable of bringing life satisfaction.

Religion, spirituality, and mental illness among working professionals: an in-depth interview study

ABSTRACT Religion and spirituality (R/S) tend to be associated with emotional wellbeing, but less is known about how they function in the lives of people with mental illness. This paper presents an analysis of in-depth interviews with 26 adults who self-identified as working professionals with a mental illness. Four themes emerged regarding how R/S was experienced as beneficial to mental health, and three themes regarding how it was problematic. The benefits included providing a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, supportive relationships with R/S figures, and therapeutic R/S practices, whereas problematic aspects included religion as a risky refuge, religious struggles, and abuse in religious settings. In addition, 21 of 26 reported transitions related to their mental illness including switching between religions, leaving religion, and becoming more spiritual, leaving R/S altogether, and religious conversion. The results are discussed, and implications are drawn for R/S practitioners as well as for future research.

Implementing Indian Culture

Mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik uses his deep domain knowledge and corporate experience to address the topic: Implementing Indian Culture. First, he reveals how changing corporate culture through workshops and training programmes is based on the idea of evangelism and religious conversion, which is alien to caste-based Indian society where aggregation of new ideas is preferred over replacement of old ideas. Then, using mythology as a toolkit, he elaborates what is common and what is different between Indian, Chinese and Western cultures. He argues that China and Japan’s success is not the result of ‘Westernisation’ but by their grounding in home-grown Confucian and Taoist myths. India’s progress needs a similar grounding in ideas that have originated, and continue to thrive, in India, hence the need to appreciate the Indian model of yagna (exchange), which is neither policy based and contractual, as in the West, nor authority based, as in the Far East. However, as it is relationship based, it demands maturity and empathy of the leader who functions as the head of the family business ( karta). It demands the karta’s personal transformation from self-indulgent to self-expansive as he gradually delegates and nurtures talent to create an ecosystem of success ( mangalya). Growth then is not just material (what you have) but also psychological/spiritual (who you are).

Feminist Ethnography in South Korea: Documenting Conversion to Islam in “Multicultural” Korea and the Gendered Struggle for Belonging

This paper presents a feminist ethnographic account of the gendered struggle for belonging in “multicultural” Korea through an in-depth case study of a Korean Muslim woman convert and her family. Centering the informant and her family’s narratives, I explore the gendered implications linked to her conversion to Islam, her sense of belonging and how her inter-ethnic marriage challenges existing notions of labelled “multicultural families” in Korean society. This paper sheds light on the penalties associated with the case study’s religious conversion and marriage choice, demonstrating how she experiences exclusion from mainstream society and her own ethnic community. Far from being an isolated case, I will further convey how it is linked to several others in the literature, highlighting the urgent need for further field research.

Editorial Commentary

Editorial Commentary

Philosophic and Spiritual Conversion in Late Hellenism: Case Studies from the 3rd to the 5th Centuries AD

This paper aims to study the historic and sociological context of philosophic-spiritual conversions through several case studies from late Hellenism (2nd to 5th c. AD). In the History of Religion, spiritual initiatory experiences have been thought of as a key factor to understand the development of a belief; from Arthur D. Nock to modern times, there have been considerable attempts made at defining the concept of conversion as a part of the human psyche. This study will examine biographies of charismatic teachers of Greco-Roman higher education (παιδεία); specifically, some passages in which philosophic-spiritual initiatory experiences are described. In addition, they will be put in parallel with other passages in which the powerful charismatic personality of the teachers can be grasped, i.e., the main trigger of conversion. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is the importance of a charismatic master for a philosophic-spiritual experience to take place. In conclusion, late antique biographical sources must be re-examined in search for “the personal” without forgetting that, in this literary context, religious, philosophical, educational, and spiritual experiences can be encountered.

Reimagining This Creature: Hospitality and Autohagiography in the Visions of Margery Kempe

AbstractThe Book of Margery Kempe tells the apparently true story of a medieval wife and mother of fourteen children who, following religious conversion, leaves her old life behind in order to dedicate herself to God. Apparently dictated to scribes by Kempe herself, the Book traces her treatment at the hands of her contemporaries, many of them hostile to her claims of religious visions and her odd behaviour as a result. While there has been some critical work done on the significance of food and drink in the Book, little has been observed about the role of food and drink in Kempe's visions. Specifically, critics have hitherto overlooked how it is via food, drink and performing the role of hostess in her visions that Kempe presented herself as an active and valuable participant in the Christian narrative and thus worthy of sainthood. Kempe is often unfavourably compared to Julian of Norwich, the calm and intellectual mystic who lived the solitary and dignified life of the anchoress. This article argues that the two women are more alike than is usually acknowledged. Kempe too withdrew from the world in her visions, in order to play a role in the Christian story and so promote her special status as a holy woman and her own narrative as a work of late medieval autohagiography.

‘My whole world shifted’: Identity and transformation in becoming-a-fan narratives

Based on a multi-site ethnography and participant interviews with fans of The Beatles (primarily John Lennon) and Johnny Cash, this article discusses transformational accounts of becoming-a-fan narratives. Fan interviews took place during two intervals: in the fall of 2013 and winter 2014, and in winter and spring 2019. A primary focus is Sandvoss’s conception of the ‘extension of the self’ concerning the object of a fan’s devotion. Extensions of the self operate to reaffirm the fan’s sense of self and inform identification with the celebrity. To clarify this concept, this article considers ‘becoming-a-fan’ narratives as a way to illustrate how the self works in the lives of fans and how a turn towards fan identity helps to refocus a previous emphasis on becoming-a-fan as similar to religious conversion. I argue fans of The Beatles and Cash relate to one or more values embedded in the celebrity and, in combination with socialization to the fan object, transition to a fan identity. Harrington and Bielby’s notion of texistence helps to explain what maintains this identity over the life course. In conclusion, I consider whether this new-found identity reveals an important dynamic about the way people transition to fandom.

Dr Ambedkar and the ‘Prostitute’: Caste, Sexuality and Humanity in Modern India

ABSTRACTDalits’ (Untouchables) most democratic and productive politics relentlessly returns to questions of caste violence, sociality, sexuality and ‘inclusion/exclusion’ in the larger Indian body politic, thus producing a new matrix and mode of power within the category of the human itself. This article analyses the intellectual and anti‐caste leader Dr B. R. Ambedkar's (1891–1956) multi‐pronged – social, cultural and political – strategies of creating manuski (human dignity), dharmantar (religious conversion) and respectable samaj (community) in a doubly colonial – British and brahmanical – context. It offers the first analysis of Ambedkar's hitherto under‐examined speech of 16 June 1936 and other fragmentary evidence in Marathi by focusing on the changing contexts, complex conjunctures of socio‐sexual and material forces and political transformations that Dalit women engaged with to carve out their womanhood and humanity. The article examines the unmitigated contingencies of particular interlocked social, political, cultural, economic, emotional and moral battles of constituting a new political Dalit. It illuminates the ways the most stigmatised, ‘immoral,’ ‘corrupt’ and multi‐dimensional ‘prostitute’ emerged as a conceptual and categorical limit and embarrassment to Ambedkar's strategies of building Dalit power. The article's focus shifts away from imperial and European contexts and discourses to write histories of caste, gender and colonial sexuality from the vantage point of local Dalit women. This approach highlights the importance of writing histories of transnational and multilingual epistemologies that reorganize social and sexual norms in colonial and postcolonial societies.

Indigenous Knowledge and Endogenous Development: Exploring Survival Strategy of a Tribal Community of Jharkhand, India

Indigenous communities depend directly on natural ecosystems for their livelihoods — wild plants and animals for food, for clothing, for fuel, medicine, and shelter. The deteriorating ecological situation, persistent poverty, social, political and religious tensions and the reduction of biological and cultural diversity present a polycrisis for which new answers are urgently needed. It is in this context the relevance of Indigenous knowledge has entered in the mainstream of sustainable development and the concept of endogenous development has received greater attention. Endogenous development refers to development that is mainly, though not exclusively, based on locally available resources, such as land, water, vegetation, knowledge, skills and competencies. The present article is an endeavor to document the customary practices based on indigenous knowledge of a Sauria-Paharia community in relation to their livelihood strategies for survival in a hostile condition. The article highlights the localized livelihood organization encompassing pattern of resource identification and use, ‘local laws’ of resource conservation, labor organization in terms of acquisition of specialized knowledge, continuity of knowledge through customary networks and distribution of knowledge in terms of age and gender. Despite the presence of all the strength required for the endogenous development, the villagers have to combat with the challenges imposed by the extraneous factors like religious conversion, culturally incompatible education system, intervention of development agencies and programmes and acculturation of the tribal society into the non-tribal framework through greater participation in different fairs and festivals of other ethnic and religious groups. Finally, the article tries to explore the possibilities of endogenous development in the changing scenario by rapprochement of persisting knowledge base of the community and the factors deviating the community from their customary practices that so far been successful in the local context. Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge, Customary Practices, Endogenous Development, Sauria Paharia.

Crisis as Catalyst: Crisis in Conversion to Islam Related to Radicalism Intentions

ABSTRACT In Western democracies, Muslim converts are overrepresented in Islamist terrorism compared to born-and-raised Muslims. Consequently, researchers have begun to consider how the process of conversion to Islam might influence participation in terrorism, yet empirical data are lacking. To explore these connections, the present study measured the conversion experiences of Muslim converts, as well as their intentions to engage in radicalism. 177 U.S. Muslim converts completed the Radicalism Intentions Scale, which measures willingness to engage in violent and illegal political behaviors to support one’s group, and the Adult Religious Conversion Experience Questionnaire, which measures the components of conversion, including crisis. Crisis is an experience of stress or difficulty that contributes to the collapse of one’s pre-conversion belief system (e.g., when an alcoholic hits “bottom”). Results indicate that the level of crisis that converts experienced was the only conversion variable associated with converts’ radicalism intentions, which suggests that crisis may be an important construct in connecting the processes of conversion to Islam and participation in Islamist terrorism.

Konversi Agama dari Hindu ke Islam Pada Masyarakat Banyuwangi: Analisis Sejarah Kritis

Conversion of Religion from Hinduism to Islam in Banyuwangi: Critical Historical Analysis. The purpose of writing this article is to describe the situation and condition of the previous Blambangan kingdom. Also, try to explain how Islam entered and developed in Banyuwangi. Hinduism in the land of Banyuwangi can not be separated from several kingdoms in the archipelago. With the establishment of Islamic education such as pesantren whose influence is very strong at the eastern end of the island of Java, then the marriage line, coupled with the influence of power, Islam can flourish amid the majority of Hindu communities.

Religious Conversion and Loss of Faith: Cases of Personal Paradigm Shift?

Is Thomas Kuhn’s model of scientific revolutions in terms of paradigm shifts appropriately applied to cases of radical changes in religious outlook, and in particular conversion to faith, or loss of faith? Since this question cannot be addressed in purely a priori terms, three case studies of philosophers who have described significant changes in their own perspectives are examined. Part of the justification for such an approach is to see how changes in view seem from the first-person perspective. Although what is offered here is a very limited group of studies, each of them perforce brief, a key theme emerges: that the incommensurability between paradigms which is part of the Kuhnian model is mirrored by the shift away from atheist or humanistic perspectives, though not necessarily by loss of faith.

Correction to: Religious Conversion Practices and LGBTQA + Youth

Correction to: Religious Conversion Practices and LGBTQA + Youth

Religious Pluralism Among the Navayana Buddhist Women: A Study in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India

Dr B. R. Ambedkar adopted the policy of ‘religious conversion’ to provide social justice to the Mahars—an untouchable community in the state of Maharashtra. Nearly, three and a half million people accepted Navayana Buddhism on a single day under his leadership, denouncing Hindu gods and goddesses and vowed not to accept untouchable status imposed by the caste-Hindu population. Contrary to such a radical departure from Hinduism, there is evidence that a substantial chunk of the people still follows Hindu traditions and beliefs and practices, exhibiting a culture of religious pluralism. Based on a primary field study conducted among the Navayana Buddhist women in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the article examines and explains the causes of such manifestation in the studied population’s religious life.

Terrorist campaigns and the growth of the Muslim population: a reply

AbstractA recently published paper in this journal (Choi, 2021) establishes a statistical link between, on the one hand, Islamist terrorist campaigns – including terrorist attacks and online propaganda – and, on the other the growth of the Muslim population. The author explains this result by stating that successful campaigns lead some individuals to convert to Islam. In this commentary, we intend to reply to this article by focusing on the impact of terrorist attacks on religious conversion. We first show that Choi's results suffer from theoretical flaws – a failure to comprehensively unpack the link between violence and conversion – and methodological shortcomings – a focus on all terrorist groups over a period where Islamist attacks were rare. This leads us to replicate Choi's analysis by distinguishing Islamist and non-Islamist terror attacks on a more adequate timeframe. By doing so, we no longer find empirical support for the relationship between terror attacks and the growth of the Muslim population. However, our analyses suggest that such a hypothesis may hold but only in contexts where the level and intensity of political violence are high.

Religious Conversion Practices and LGBTQA + Youth

IntroductionMultiple jurisdictions are debating responses to United Nations calls for banning attempts at conversion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual (LGBTQA +) peoples’ identities to fit religious norms. This paper aimed to examine Australian LGBTQA + youths’ experiences and outcomes of religious conversion practices attempting to change or suppress their gender or sexuality. It explored how attending conversion practices related to demographic characteristics and outcomes.MethodsA 2019 online health and social well-being survey promoted via diverse social media questioned 6412 LGBTQA + Australians aged 14–21 years on their experiences of sexuality or gender change or suppression practices. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to understand relationships between exposure to conversion practices and demographic, socio-behavioural, and health and well-being measures.ResultsWhilst most participants had never attended counselling, group work, programs or interventions aimed at changing their sexuality or gender identity, 4% had attended such conversion practices. Analyses showed associations between engaging with conversion practices and (1) specific demographics (being cisgender male, multi-gender-attracted, unemployed, affiliated to a religion at the personal or household level); (2) social experiences (increased exposure to social rejection, negative remarks and harassment); (3) socio-behavioural outcomes (decreased education, sport and housing opportunities) and (4) negative health and mental health outcomes (including increased suicidality and self-harm).ConclusionsThe paper showed that conversion practices are correlated with poor well-being outcomes, providing arguments for expanding inclusive health and mental health services allowing for affirming religious and non-religious identities for LGBTQA + youth.Policy ImplicationsThe paper provides evidence supporting bans on conversion practices.

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.

Making an Ethnic Group: Lemko-Rusyns and the Minority Question in the Second Polish Republic

Drawing on ethnographic and archival materials, this paper examines the ethnic politics of the Second Polish Republic by taking into account the experiences of the Lemko-Rusyn population, a minority East Slavic group inhabiting the peripheral mountainous area in southern Poland. It illustrates the changing policies towards Lemko-Rusyns and discusses the different responses of the local population to these policies, demonstrating the inadequacy of categories imposed from above as well as manifold motivations behind people's political views, choices of national identification, and religious conversions. In so doing, the article has three main objectives. First, in line with recent critical scholarship on nationalism in the Second Polish Republic, it attempts to problematize the – frequently exaggerated – difference between ‘federational’ and ‘assimilationist’ conceptions, exposing the discriminatory nature of interwar minority politics, as experienced locally. Second, moving beyond the interwar period, the article presents the long-term consequences of the interwar policies and the events of the Second World War, including a series of ethnic cleansings that took place in the aftermath of the war as well as present-day discourses on and policies towards ethnic and national minorities. And third, in discussing state actors' agency in the domain of minority policies, it calls for a more thorough recognition of the agency of the people who are the target of those policies. The article considers all these issues by presenting a history of a Lemko-Rusyn locality and its inhabitants, as recorded in school records, state reports, and oral histories.

The Dynamics of Religiosity among Members of Muslim Minority in Purbo Jolotigo Talun of Pekalongan Central Java

The study aimed to describe the dynamics of religious awareness experience, religious maturity, religious conversion, and factors that influence religiosity among Muslim minorities in Purbo, Pekalongan, Central Java, Indonesia. it employed a qualitative descriptive research method within which the informants were selected using snowball sampling. The results showed that firstly, the religious awareness of the Muslim minorities in Purbo reflects an expression of feelings that they are called to believe in Islam, and it is a gift from Allah SWT. Meanwhile, the religious experience reflects ritual worship that is considered as a religious demand. Secondly, the religious maturity of them has not fully fulfilled its criteria as theorized. It has unique characteristics. Thirdly, there are two types of religious conversions, are: converting to Islam and leaving from Islam. Fourthly, factors that influence the dynamics of Muslim minority in Purbo are age of development and experience of subjective diversity, education, environment, and culture.