Minority-religion context

3.6.1 Minority-religion context

One of the types of contexts that have been identified by this review is the context that is shaped by the position of the converts‟ new religion. As shown above, potential

converts who sought an affiliation with a minority religion have a considerably different and distinctive conversion experience. This finding is evidently in line with Roald‟s argument where, as mentioned earlier, there is a necessity to recognise “whether the conversion happens within a majority- or a minority-context” in order to

gain a complete understanding of the process of a religious conversion (Roald 2004: 79). This argument was formulated from the findings of her own study on the religious conversion of Scandinavians to Islam where she concludes that the Rambo Model cannot fully explain the conversion experience of the Muslim Scandinavians. This is because the Rambo Model fundamentally represents a religious conversion to

Christianity in which Christianity is a majority religion in the United States, whereas Islam is a minority, defamed religion in Norway, Sweden and Denmark (ibid.). Thus,

as the relationship between the Europeans and the Muslims is established on the “us” and “them” perspectives, and that there is a relatively high degree of segregation with only „few points of contact between Muslims and non-Muslims”, it is not possible to expect the encounter with Islam in Scandinavia to be through religious missionaries, as how Rambo defines the way a religious encounter should occur (Roald 2004: 344).

Roald‟s finding is supported by the studies that explored a conversion process to religions with minority status in the country of the converts, where it is conceivable

for the crisis stage to occur at the outset of such conversion process, followed by the encounter, as shown above in Diagram I. In the case of the quest stage, its occurrence is due to the rarity of information on the minority religion as the broadcasting and printed media do not adequately provide information on the religion in the country of the converts.

As explained in section 3.5.5, the commitment stage is absent in the conversion process to a minority religion. The status of the religion and the way the religion is being portrayed by popular media channels in the country of the converts has significantly influenced the perception of a majority of the population towards the religion. This accordingly leads to oppositions against the intention to convert to a minority religion and thus accordingly explains as to why the converts to such type of religion tend to sidestep the commitment ritual.

Given the significant impact that the minority religion has on the conversion process of its potential converts as shown above, it becomes essential to examine a conversion process to a religion that has a majority status in the country of the converts. Picking

up from Roald‟s argument earlier where a religious conversion to a minority religion presents a unique conversion character and stage order, it will be of great interest and

importance to examine the characters of a conversion process that have been influenced by a majority religion, as well as to investigate the distinctive stage sequence in a conversion process to this type of religion. This further justifies the significance of this study as Brunei is a good case study to represent the studies on a religious conversion to a majority religion.