Religious Conversion and Citizenship

The nexus between religious conversion and citizenship remains understudied in the sociology of religion, partly because religious conversion is considered a divine personal experience, whereas citizenship is seen as a secular state matter. The practice of separating religious conversion and citizenship has made religious and secular citizenship appear as incongruous options. This separation enhances a popular understanding that religious citizenship and secular citizenship are, or should be, in two distinct operational modes, with few interactions. This perception and practice of citizenship create a vague space, which I will call a citizenship limbo, in which religious citizenship and secular citizenship compete, confront, and collaborate. A citizenship limbo is a gray zone between citizens and other forms of “paperless” residents, such as migrants, displaced people, asylum-seekers, and refugees. The limbo has been treated as a stopover for noncitizens on the journey to citizenship, but the issue of how a lawful citizen falls into this limbo has remained under-researched.

Citizenship · Epistemology · Immigration · Islam · Nexus (standard) · Perception · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Sociology · State (computer science) · Theology · Asian Studies and History · Education and Islamic Studies · Engineering · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development