Asylum and Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Europe

Lena Rose is Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Konstanz, Germany.Ebru Öztürk is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Mid Sweden University, Sweden.

A book most needed, for students, researchers, and practitioners alike. The book highlights the difficult question of the credibility and authenticity of asylum seeker conversion and several chapters show how 'true conversion' and 'religion' are often (un)consciously associated too tightly with a (Lutheran) Protestant view. The cross-disciplinary, comparative approach includes data from the processes of legal decisions, court ethnography, as well as voices of asylum seekers themselves.

• Notes on the Contributors 1. Asylum and Conversion to Christianity: An Introduction, Lena Rose (University of Konstanz, Germany)2. Definitions of Religion as Gatekeeping: A Discursive Approach to the Assessment of Christian Conversion in Finland: A Qualitative Sociological Analysis, Helmi Halonen (University of Helsinki, Finland)3. Credibility Assessment in Asylum Claims Based on Religious Conversion in Germany: A Qualitative Sociological Analysis, Anne K. Schlüter (University of Münster, Germany)4. Making the Convert Speak: The Production of Truth and the “Apparatus of Conversion” in Austria, Markus Elias Ramsauer (University of Vienna, Austria) and Ayse Çaglar (University of Vienna/IWM, Austria)5. Material Conversions: Exploring the Materiality of Asylum Seekers' Conversion Narratives and Processes in Norway, Olav Børreson Fossdal (University of Oslo, Norway)6. Building Belief: Navigating Moral Tensions Through Category Work While Assisting Converted Asylum Seekers in Finland, Valtteri Vähä-Savo (Tampere University, Finland) and Venla Koivuluhta, (Tampere University, Finland)7. Tales of Transformation: Conversion Narratives of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in the Church of Sweden, Jonathan Morgan (Lund University, Sweden)8. Becoming Christian, Remaining Iranian: The Salience of National Identity in Iranian Evangelical Exile Churches, Benedikt Römer (University of Bayreuth, Germany)9. “She Lacks a 'Male Network' in Her Home Country”: Gendering the Credibility Assessment and the Discursive Space of Intersectionality in Migration Courts in Sweden, Ebru Öztürk (Mid Sweden University, Sweden)Afterword: In the Eye of the Inquisitor: the Politics of Religious Asylum, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern University, USA)BibliographyIndex