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<strong>St</strong> <strong>Francis</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012<br />
pression, or of return to <strong>the</strong> Muslim community (for <strong>the</strong> sake of comfort<br />
sake if not from conviction). In some unresolved cases, it leads<br />
to schizophrenia.<br />
In Search of Meaning and Identity is <strong>the</strong> title of Seppo Syrjanen’s<br />
classic study on Pakistani Muslims turning to Christ. 61 Longing for<br />
Community is a forthcoming edited collection of studies on former<br />
Muslims in a range of countries. ‘Community and Identity among<br />
Arabs of a Muslim background who choose to follow a Christian<br />
faith’ is Kathryn Kraft’s PhD title. 62 As more and more Muslims<br />
worldwide put <strong>the</strong>ir faith in Christ, <strong>the</strong>y find that <strong>the</strong>ir search for<br />
identity and community has only just begun.<br />
Certainly “identity” and “community” are linked. The former is<br />
formed in <strong>the</strong> womb of <strong>the</strong> latter and sustained by its umbilical cord.<br />
Thus <strong>the</strong> question facing former Muslims is not only “who am I”,<br />
but also “who are we” - as a group of Afghan Christians in Canada<br />
put it to me. Both questions are critically important for this generation’s<br />
new believers, and for <strong>the</strong> health of next generation’s churches.<br />
1.2 Terminology<br />
It will have been noted that I use interchangeably <strong>the</strong> terms “believer<br />
from Muslim background”, “former Muslim”, “convert” and “ex-<br />
Muslim Christian”. A mix is needed, for no one term is favoured by<br />
all. In particular <strong>the</strong> term “convert”, though shunned <strong>the</strong>se days in<br />
missiological circles, is normal parlance for sociologists. They in<br />
turn would look askance at <strong>the</strong> missiological label “believer from<br />
Muslim background”, for in <strong>the</strong>ir terms of reference are not Muslims<br />
already “believers”<br />
Is it perhaps time for missiologists too to reclaim <strong>the</strong> short and<br />
simple word “convert”, dust off its negative associations, and accept<br />
that a person turning from Islam to Christ is indeed “converting”<br />
61 Seppo Syrjänen, In Search of Meaning and Identity: Conversion to Christianity in<br />
Pakistani Muslim Culture (Vammala: Finnish Society for Missiology and Ecumenics,<br />
1984).<br />
62 Kathryn Kraft, ‘Community and Identity among Arabs of a Muslim background<br />
who choose to follow a Christian Faith’, (PhD diss., Bristol: University of Bristol,<br />
2008).<br />
<strong>St</strong> <strong>Francis</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 520