The Passion Of Converts

The born-again are often more insistent on religious purity than those who have been born only once and still have faith. The same is true with Islam, it seems, except the consequences of that fanaticism can be far, far worse than enduring piety at full-blast. In Germany conversions to Islam have gone from around 300 a year in the late 1990s to 4,000 in 2006, the WaPo reports. Some have become religious murderers. One blogger wants to know more:

Here are some big questions that are left unanswered and would probably take more than three reporters a couple of weeks to figure out: Why do these people convert? Why the increasing numbers? And what are they converting from? Christianity? Agnosticism? Atheism?

Why would any of these converts turn radical? For the purposes of a story like this, it doesn’t matter if 95 out of 100 converts stop at the madrassas. All we’re talking about in this story is a handful of converts who have since been arrested for being involved in terrorism. This rough spiritual timeline from the so-called experts is nice, but we need more.