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Embracing Islam to Improve and Restore the Vulnerable Subject: Religious Conversion as Hermeneutics of the Self. A Case in Prison

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Lived Religion, Conversion and Recovery

Abstract

Although contemporary conversions to Islam have been widely documented, few studies have explored what embracing Islam means in terms of lived religion. Following Michel Foucault and Talal Asad’s genealogies of the concept of conversion, I address conversion to Islam as a process that models, shapes, and builds the ethical subject. The narratives I have collected among converts to Islam in France and Quebec indicate that their choice of Islam is part of a project of improving the self and restoring social identity and status. I therefore propose to consider conversions as hermeneutics of the self and to revisit the heuristic value of the concept beyond the influence of the Christian paradigm. Such a framework allows us to understand how conversions may shape subjectivities and induce alternative moralities in contexts of high vulnerability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Translated by the present author.

  2. 2.

    Interview conducted in Montreal (Canada), April 22, 2007 with Hélène.

  3. 3.

    Idem.

  4. 4.

    Interview conducted in Montreal (Canada), October 18, 2007.

  5. 5.

    Conversations conducted with chaplains in service in Quebec and the rest of Canada in 2016 suggest that the privatization of the chaplaincy in federal prisons that took place in 2013 has significantly shifted the philosophy of imprisonment toward punishment and detention.

  6. 6.

    Interview conducted in Montreal (Canada), September 9, 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Géraldine Mossière

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  1. Géraldine Mossière
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Srdjan Sremac

  2. Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA

    Ines W. Jindra

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Mossière, G. (2020). Embracing Islam to Improve and Restore the Vulnerable Subject: Religious Conversion as Hermeneutics of the Self. A Case in Prison. In: Sremac, S., Jindra, I. (eds) Lived Religion, Conversion and Recovery . Palgrave Studies in Lived Religion and Societal Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40682-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40682-0_7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40681-3

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