ملخص الجهاز:
It shows how at an early stage in their life, many Westerners are disenchanted with their religion, Christianity or Judaism, and proceed to explore radical alternatives including new age religion, eastern religions and even various cults.
The conversion of Westerners to the religion of Islam follows an observable pattern involving readily identifiable stages, including: deliberate rejection of the religion of one's upbringing or cultural surroundings (for Westerners, Christianity and Judaism); a subsequent period of several years characterized by experimentation with religious systems (usually Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism or their derivatives) which represent a radical departure from the rejected religion; dissatisfaction with and eventual rejection of the radical alternatives; and conversion to Islam as a movement from an extreme departure back in the direction of the religion that was originally rejected.
The purpose of this article is to describe in detail each stage of the above-mentioned process, including reasons cited by Westerners for the unacceptability of contemporary expressions of both Christianity and Judaism, as well as reasons for the eventual rejection of radical alternatives.
Stage 3: Dissatisfaction and Rejection Researchers have noted that Westerners who convert to Eastern-oriented religious do not remain in these groups for long periods of time.
The personalities under consideration consistently exhibit at least two of the traits that Lofland and Poston: Islam as •• Middle Path" 93 Stark noted in their study: seekership and a religious problem-solving perspective.