‘It’s Not Just about Faith’: Narratives of Transformation When Moving Out of Islam in the Netherlands and Britain

Abstract

This article investigates the narratives of people with Islamic backgrounds in the Netherlands and Britain who have moved out of Islam. Rather than focusing primarily on 'leaving faith' (i.e. a predominantly negative and religiously centred approach), it will present four types of thematic trajectories that consider the broader life-worlds and experiences of the interlocutors. These themes will illustrate the relative weight of the religious voice in trajectories, rather than presupposing the centrality of religion in one's (former) identity or trajectory. It will thereby display a broader understanding of the interlocutors' experiences as being in a negative relation to religion alone: not only religious, but also political, social, ethnic and gender boundaries provided the contexts in which people moved out of Islam. The themes ('religious break', 'social break-away', 'the entrance' and 'unconscious secularization') will be illustrated by four case studies. A fifth case will be presented to illustrate the potency of the intertwinement of the themes. ARTICLE HISTORY

Leaving religion: deconversion

“…Thus, the majority of early-and mostly interview-based, retrospective-studies on deconversion have focused upon exiters from NRMs [5,[7][8][9][10] with special attention to their search for freedom and autonomy, but also to their emotional suffering, crises, and wellbeing after deconversion. The study of deconversion from NRMs has continued to the present on a smaller scale, while deconversion research generally expanded its focus to include fundamentalist and evangelical Christians [11,12], Mormons [13,14], Orthodox Jews [15**,16], Muslims [17][18][19], and deconversions from a broad range of religious traditions [5,20].…”

Deconversion from High-tension Religious Groups

“…Deconversion research expanded its focus to include fundamentalist and evangelical Christians (e.g. Fazzino, 2014;Nica, 2019), Mormons (McGraw et al, 2018;Ormsbee, 2020), Orthodox Jews (Greenwald et al, 2018;Engelman et al, 2020), Muslims (Cottee, 2015;van Nieuwkerk, 2018;Vliek, 2019), and deconversions from a broad range of religious traditions. The study of deconversion from NRMs has continued in fields adjacent to psychology or the psychology of religion, such as clinical psychology or social work (see below).…”

“Speaking Out Would Be a Step Beyond Just Not Believing”—On the Performativity of Testimony When Moving Out of Islam

“…Lastly, there were those to whom it was (no longer) relevant to speak about religion or non-belief: there was no barrier to be crossed or non-religious identity to be performed. This was particularly relevant for those who developed their identities emphatically not in relation to religion (also see Vliek 2019). They also referred to wanting to speak out about other issues and performing other identities, both publicly and privately.…”

“…Since in the Netherlands there are less formal structures present, it took about eight months to find people willing to talk to me extensively about their experiences, whilst in the UK, the formal interview part of my fieldwork was finished within eight weeks. I explore the consequences of these methods of recruitment extensively elsewhere (Vliek 2019). It suffices to note here that for the current analysis, these factors have been carefully considered and that for example membership of or affiliation with an organisation and its consequences has been noted where relevant.…”