Abstract
Using fieldwork carried out in France and the United States, the author considers the diversity of the representations converts have about Islam. She distinguishes several ideal-typical modes of identification with Islam, demonstrating the complexity of the conversion process: for individual converts, Islam can represent a spiritual quest, an opposition to Christianity, the continuation of a monotheist path, a means of affirming identity or ethnicity, or a social protest. These elements are not in relaity exclusive, but are blended in many different combinations, reflecting the variety of collective histories and individual stories; this typology will, it is hoped, be a useful analytic tool (in terms of community, identity, and resistance) for studying the dynamism of community religious movements, which are at present growing rapidly.