Prison as a Site of Intense Religious Change: The Example of Conversion to Islam

Wilkinson, Matthew; Irfan, Lamia; Quraishi, Muzammil; Purdie, Mallory Schneuwly

doi:10.3390/rel12030162

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Specifically, Latina converts expressed that Islamic practices—and wearing hijab in particular—buffered against sexualizing Latina stereotypes. Among Muslim converts in prison within the U.S. and Britain, existing research suggests that they had a high level of religious conviction, and this was related to decreased aggression, improved mental health, and better social relationships (Ammar et al, 2004; Spalek & El-Hassan, 2007; Wilkinson et al, 2021). To our knowledge, there is no study that examines these changes pre- to postconversion in MLUS converts.…”

Section: Religiousness/spirituality Factors Related To Mental Health ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One recent study of MLUS converts found that converts actually had less conviction compared to lifelong believers and in fact struggle more with their faith (Snook et al, 2021). However, other work has demonstrated that some MLUS experience intense and notable shifts in R/S after conversion that are associated with better mental health outcomes (Wilkinson et al, 2021), and that these shifts lead to a greater identification with Islam and a deep sense of meaning (Bowen, 2009;La Voie, 2017;Maslim & Bjorck, 2009). These findings suggest that not only is more research needed to determine whether convert MLUS differ in R/S from lifelong MLUS, but that research needs to uncover more nuance in this dynamic, including how levels of R/S relate to mental health outcomes between convert and lifelong MLUS.…”

Section: The Zeal Of a Convertmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

McLaughlin¹,

Ahmad²,

Rodriguez³

et al. 2022

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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Muslim converts are an understudied group whose mental health needs are largely unknown, although they are often viewed as more zealous than lifelong believers. While research shows that greater religiousness/ spirituality (R/S) is associated with better mental health for Muslims living in the United States (MLUS), it is unclear how this may apply to converts. Our study, comprised of 350 MLUS (n = 77 converts) acquired via an online panel aggregate, utilized multigroup structural equation modeling to assess the impact of adaptive (e.g., positive coping) and maladaptive (i.e., religious struggle and punishing Allah reappraisals [PAR]) Islamic R/S on psychological distress across conversion status. Converts were not more zealous than their counterparts, endorsing lower adaptive R/S scores. Surprisingly, greater adaptive R/S was associated with greater psychological distress in general. As expected, greater PAR and religious struggle were associated with greater psychological distress, yet the relationship between religious struggle and distress was stronger in converts compared to lifelong Muslims. These findings suggest that highly distressed MLUS may be especially in need of psychological services, as studies have demonstrated adaptive R/S alone has not been enough to reduce distress. Second, converts may be especially vulnerable to crises of faith when compared with lifelong Muslims, which may be missed if clinicians assume a higher level of "zealousness" due to a common but potentially inaccurate belief. Muslim converts may benefit from therapy that aims to better integrate them into the Muslim community and uncovers and helps to alleviate stressors associated with shifts in religious identity. Public Significance StatementThis is the second study to demonstrate that Muslim converts living in the United States do not demonstrate greater zealousness compared to lifelong believers, and to the contrary, indicated lower levels of adaptive religiousness/spirituality (R/S). This study extends this work further, finding Muslim converts seem especially vulnerable to religious struggle and would likely benefit from therapies that take R/S factors into account.

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Section: Religiousness/spirituality Factors Related To Mental Health ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Zeal Of a Convertmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

McLaughlin¹,

Ahmad²,

Rodriguez³

et al. 2022

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Finally, Dix-Richardson suggested that since there was less prison violence in women's institutions, the need for protection of a group "perceived as dangerous and fearsome" (Khosrokhavar 2004, p. 38) was not as powerful a pull factor as it was for men. Other research has strongly challenged the widely held idea that Muslim males choose Islam primarily for protection, perks and privileges (Wilkinson et al 2021a).…”

Section: Researching Women and Islam In Prisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research project was subject to rigorous ethical evaluation prior to data collection (see Wilkinson et al 2021a for detailed description of methodology and ethics). The research took place in five English prisons, four Swiss prisons and one French prison in a variety of geographies, holding both sentenced and remand prisoners and covering all prison categories 1 Our research sample included all four security categories used in England and in order to ease the comparison, we adapted the equivalent security categories for use in Switzerland and France.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the whole project, we developed a typology of religious change experienced by the participants, which drew on existing literature around extra-faith, inter-faith and intra-faith conversion and the idea of conversion as any significant change of religious worldview in terms either of type or intensity within a type. Thus, we identified five main types of conversion to or within Islam (Wilkinson et al 2021a):…”

Section: Impact Of Imprisonment On the Religiosity Of Male And Female...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Living Islam in Prison: How Gender Affects the Religious Experiences of Female and Male Offenders

et al. 2021

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Addressing a significant gap in the knowledge of female Muslim prisoners’ religiosity, this paper describes and explains the gendered impact of incarceration on the religiosity of Muslim female and male offenders. Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in ten prisons, including a male and female prison in England and a male and female prison in Switzerland, the authors show that prison tends to intensify the religiosity of Muslim men and reduce the religiosity of Muslim women. In explanation of this, the authors argue that, at the individual level, the feelings of guilt at the absence of family, the absence of high-status religious forms of gender and feelings of trauma and victimhood impact negatively on Muslim female offenders’ religiosity. At the institutional level, female Muslim prisoners, being a small minority, do not mobilise a powerful shared religious identity and chaplaincy provision—including provision of basic religious services—is patchier for Muslim women than it is for men and often does not take into account the specific needs of female prisoners.

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Socio-political Aspects of Religious Slaughter

Fuseini

2022

Animal Welfare

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Prison as a Site of Intense Religious Change: The Example of Conversion to Islam

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

Living Islam in Prison: How Gender Affects the Religious Experiences of Female and Male Offenders

Socio-political Aspects of Religious Slaughter

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