Converts

Dalits who convert to Islam or Christianity in India lose their legal status as Dalits and with that the financial and legal support to which they are entitled according to the constitution and legal code. Using the logic that as Muslims or Christians they no longer belong to the lowest order of society, they lose their constitutional rights. Strangely this does not apply to Dalits who become either Buddhists or Sikhs. At least this is the way the constitution views it. Reality is at this point often something else.

The Baiardis are one of the most well-known two centuries old and noble families still living in Iasi, the former capital of the Principality of Moldova. Of Italian origin, Joseph Anton de Baiardi was commissioned, at the beginning of the XIXth century, by Prince Mihai Sutu, to draw topographical plans of various land properties owned by the Prince, and of Iasi itself, as well. He was one of the first engineers (topographer) in early modern Romanian Principalities. His descendents followed him professionally, and converted from Catholicism to Christian Orthodoxy. The research unearthed the social status of the family, and its evolution throughout the first half of the XIXth century. Marriages, in successive generations, with locals wiped out almost any sign of their Italian origins. The Baiardis are therefore a valid example of how mechanisms of acculturation functioned in early modern Moldova. A genealogical chart is attached to the paper.

he rabbinic statement ‘Proselytes are as hard to Israel as a scab’ played a significant role in a developed negative approach towards converts documented in the Babylonian Talmud. The lecturing voice of the Talmud systematically used the phrase to
support negative legislation and statements extending its scope from genealogical contexts and discouragement of marriage with converts to prohibition of their acceptance. Although it is attributed to a Palestinian Amora, a series of comparative analysis reveals the functions of the phrase as part of a  Babylonian conceptual fabric. Late contributors to the prolonged
processes of formation of the Talmud brought their perspectives to the front by implanting the phrase in new literary contexts and constructs. This evolution of thoughts and ideas reflects growing concern in the demarcation of the boundaries of Jewish identity, probably inspired by the Sassanid cultural environment, by genealogical anxieties, and by a tendency towards social immobility.

There is now a great deal of literature that shows how Islam and Muslims are routinely represented in negative ways in the mainstream newspapers. With overt or covert reliance on Orientalist discourse, discourses of cultural clash and extremism, including terror, are prevalent. Not only are Muslims less likely to feature in “normal” stories, abuse and prejudice against them is also more unlikely to constitute “news”. British converts to Islam have only recently begun to receive more focused attention, both in academia and in the mainstream press. Occupying a unique position in respect to the idea of the “other” and of integration in a multicultural society, converts offer a powerful point of critique of these concepts. The aim of this study is to understand how and in what discourses British converts to Islam are represented, and thereby contribute empirical knowledge to these theoretical concerns.

A talk was delivered to multiple audiences of priests and deacons about the results of my research into catechism and what that means for broader Church life.

- 2018: Meeting of the Deanery of Queensland (for ROCOR clergy in the Deanery of Queensland)
- 2018: Diocesan Pastoral Conference (for ROCOR clergy of the ANZ Diocese)
- 2019: Diocesan Pastoral Conference (for ROCOR clergy of the ANZ Diocese)