Asylum and Conversion to Christianity in Europe - by Lena Rose & Ebru Öztürk (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Drawing together previously disjointed scholarship on the topic of asylum and conversion from Islam to Christianity, this book shows how boundaries of belonging are negotiated between Middle Eastern ex-Muslim asylum seekers, church representatives, lawyers, legal decision-makers and policymakers.

With case studies from European countries such as Germany, Austria, Finland and Sweden, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach including ethnographic and other qualitative research, discourse analysis and case law analysis, to explore the complexities of the phenomenon of asylum and conversion from Islam to Christianity.

This book is an authoritative resource for academic scholars in fields as diverse as migration and refugee studies, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, law and socio-legal studies, as well as legal and religious practitioners.

Review Quotes

"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." --Nora Stene, Assistant Professor of Comparative Religious Studies, University of Oslo, Norway

"The editors and contributors should be congratulated on the production of a well-constructed and informative volume about a crucial, and hitherto poorly understood, topic." --Nick Gill, Professor of Human Geography, University of Exeter, UK

About the Author

Lena Rose is Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Ebru Öztürk is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Mid Sweden University, Sweden.