For Some Muslim Asylum-Seekers In Germany, Christianity Beckons - Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

Chancellor Angela Merkel says Islam is an integral part of modern-day Germany. But that hasn't kept thousands of Muslim asylum seekers from giving up their faith to become Christians in recent years.

The reasons they convert are complicated. Take Daoud Rahimi, for instance.  The 20-year-old Afghan, who arrived in Germany a few months ago, was one of dozens of asylum seekers attending a recent baptism class at the evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church in a Berlin suburb.

Like other Afghans seeking refugee status whom I've interviewed across Germany, Rahimi is quick to affirm his Muslim faith. After some prodding, he nervously admits he might convert to Christianity to avoid deportation, especially now that the German government is negotiating with Kabul to repatriate many Afghan migrants.

"If my country were safe, that wouldn't be a problem," says Rahimi, who is from a Taliban-rife province called Ghazni. "But it isn't, and if I return, my life will be in danger."

At Trinity, the Rev. Gottfried Martens says he sympathizes with Rahimi and others in his situation, but says that becoming Christian must be about faith and not fear. Martens says he or church elders interview students during their three-month baptism class to make sure their desire to convert is sincere. So far, Martens has converted hundreds.

"I talk to them personally to see whether they are really convinced that they are Christians, whether they really know the basics of the Christian faith," he says. "And when I see that this is not the case, then I don't baptize them, of course."

A Conversion Can Mean Permission To Stay :  Those who are baptized here and at other churches get more than a new faith — they also get to stay in Germany.  - Read More at NPR

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