Lisa DiCarlo, professor of sociology, Brown University
Contemporary Turkey is 98% Muslim. In a society where ethnicity is intertwined with religious identity, the concept of choosing a different religion strikes many as insincere, odd, or even threatening. The mere mention of Christian Turks causes feelings of cognitive dissonance in most of its citizens. Who are these converts? Why do they convert? How does life change for them as they move into different categories of belonging in contemporary Turkish society? How does evangelical Christianity upset the place of religious identity and its relationship to ethnicity in Turkey today?