A psychosocial study of Germans who have converted to Islam

The aim of this study is, by using the interview method, to set forth the psychosocial reasons underlying attitudes of the people in Germany who have converted to Islam.Religious conversion, in general terms, means abandoning one?s own religion and accepting another. While a great majority of people in the world adopt the religion of the society where they were born and grew up, some choose to leave the religion they inherited from their ancestors. Regardless of the denomination, from the viewpoint of psychology of religion, religious conversion is a topic worth studying in respect both of the individual who experiences it and of the perception and reaction to it of the social environment and the public.In this study, based on findings we obtained from our interviews of 20 people in Germany who became Muslims, we focus on the period when religious conversion occurs and on the psychosocial reasons of religious conversion. In the first part, the concepts of religious conversion and change are analyzed and the theoretical framework of the study is set. In addition, brief information on religious life in Germany is presented. In Part Two, the process and method of research are mentioned. In the third part the phase before the religious conversion is examined, the interviews are interpreted, and the various studies on this matter are compared. In the fourth part, the changes experienced after the religious conversion are mentioned. As a consequence, religious conversion is a case which occurs in the subjective world of the individual and is dependent on one?s own circumstances. Notably, whereas the lives of some converts transform completely, others undergo merely superficial change.