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chapter 2 The Shaping of a Scandinavian “Islam” Converts and Gender Equal Opportunity Anne Sofie Roald It is symptomatic that new converts often embrace a specific cultural understanding of Islam, where, for instance, Arabic, Pakistani, or African cultural traits become important in their new Islamic worldview. As most converts go through stages in the postconversion process, their worldview for their understanding of Islam will change. This study will discuss how many of the Scandinavian converts tend to integrate “Scandinavian values” into their understanding of Islam. During my fieldwork among Scandinavian converts in 1999 and 2000, where I handed out questionnaires and conducted interviews with 116 converts from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, I found that it is mainly those who converted several years ago and in addition are highly educated who are actors in this process of hybridization where “Scandinavian values” become “Islamic values.”1 In the Scandinavian convert community, I have found a three-stage conversion process relating mainly to the time after conversion. This conversion process deals largely with new Muslims’ relations to the born-Muslim community . It also, however, has psychological aspects, its stages being “love,” “disappointment,” and “maturity.” It is important to note that I have observed a similar three-stage process among Muslim converts in other European countries. Although this study mainly deals with converts at the third stage, I will refer to the three stages in order for the reader to get a broader understanding of how the stages related to converts’ understanding of Islam. New Muslims are socialized into a certain cultural context, but, by converting to Islam, there is a total shift of “cultural truths.” This cultural shift might put the convert in a contrasting cultural position, where s/he becomes critical of his/her cultural group and tends to look in positive terms at the Muslim group. This is a problematic process, as it might alienate the convert from the previous in-group. At the same time, it might be difficult for the new Muslim to adopt Muslim cultural traits in toto, particularly as this culture, behaviorally and ideologically speaking, is to a great extent founded on patriarchal and traditional ideas alien to many societies in the Western world. In t h e s h a p i ng o f a s c a nd i n av i a n “ i s l a m ” 49 respondents’ answers to my questionnaire and in my discussions with new Muslims, I have sensed how many new Muslim converts tend to be enthusiastic about Muslims and Muslim cultures shortly after conversion. However, many of these become more critical of Muslims as a group after a while. The shift of cultural belonging might cause new Muslims to experience a sudden shift of perspective at the beginning of the conversion process. However, as time goes by, the social structure they are primarily socialized into tends to resurface, particularly if there is a wide gap between the cultural traits of the competing paradigms. This chapter will first give a broad outline of the stages of conversion. Second , it will deal with how “Scandinavian values” tend to be prominent in the Muslim converts’ discourse on “Islam.” Stages of Conversion The initial phase of conversion, where one can be “more royal than the king,” is evident in the new Muslims’ discussions. Many new Muslims tell of how, in the beginning, they tended to be emotionally obsessed with the new religion . Furthermore, they wanted to practice every little detail of the Islamic precepts. Some of the new converts spoke of how they would sit and read Islamic books every spare moment they had. “I just want to learn every single Islamic rule and start to practice everything I have learnt at once,” exclaimed a twenty-one-year-old woman, who had been a Muslim just six months. The phenomenon of absolutism seems to be a universal one among new converts to Islam. A leading British academic convert, T. J. Winters, has termed the phenomenon “convertitis.” He explains: The initial and quite understandable response of many newcomers is to become an absolutist . Everything going on among pious Muslims is angelic; everything outside the circle of faith is demonic; the appeal of this outlook lies in its simplicity. The newly arranged landscape on which the convert looks is seen in satisfying black and white terms of Them versus Us, good against evil. (Winters, http://www.islamfortoday.com) I was referred to this text on “convertitis” by a new...

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