Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bends his
head as the priest pours holy water over his
black hair. "Will you break away from Satan
and his evil deeds?" pastor Gottfried Martens
asks the Iranian refugee. "Will you break away
from Islam?"
"Yes," Zonoobi fervently replies. Spreading his
hands in blessing, Martens then baptizes the
man "in the name of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost."
Mohammed is now Martin — no longer
Muslim, but Christian.
Zonoobi, a carpenter from the Iranian city of
Shiraz, arrived in Germany with his wife and
two children five months ago. He is one of
hundreds of mostly Iranian and Afghan
asylum seekers who have converted to
Christianity at the evangelical Trinity Church in
a leafy Berlin neighborhood.
Like Zonoobi, most say true belief prompted
their embrace of Christianity. But there's no
overlooking the fact that the decision will also
greatly boost their chances of winning asylum
by allowing them to claim they would face
persecution if sent home.
Martens recognizes that some convert in order
to improve their chances of staying in
Germany — but for the pastor motivation is
unimportant. Many, he said, are so taken by
the Christian message that it changes their
lives. And he estimates that only about 10
percent of converts do not return to church
after christening.
"I know there are — again and again — people
coming here because they have some kind of
hope regarding their asylum," Martens said. "I
am inviting them to join us because I know
that whoever comes here will not be left
unchanged."
Being Christian alone does not help an
applicant, and Chancellor Angela Merkel went
out of her way this week to reiterate that Islam
"belongs in Germany." But in Afghanistan and
Iran, for example, conversion to Christianity by
a Muslim could be punished by death or
imprisonment, and it is therefore unlikely that
Germany would deport converted Iranian and
Afghan refugees back home.
None will openly admit to converting in order
to help their asylum chances. To do so could
result in rejection of their asylum bid and
deportation as Christian converts. Several
candidates for baptism at Martens' church
would not give their names out of fear of
repercussions for their families back home.
Most said their decision was based on belief,
but one young Iranian woman said she was
convinced most people had joined the church
only to improve their chances for asylum.
Congregation member Vesam Heydari initially
applied for asylum in Norway and converted
there in 2009. But his case was rejected
because the Norwegian authorities did not
believe he would be persecuted as a Christian
in Iran, so he moved to Germany to seek
refugee status here — and is awaiting a
decision. He criticized many of the other
Iranian church members, saying they were
making it much harder for "real, persecuted
Christians" like himself to get approved for
asylum.
"The majority of Iranians here are not
converting out of belief," Heydari said. "They
only want to stay in Germany."
Meanwhile, as other churches across Germany
struggle with dwindling numbers of believers,
Martens has seen his congregation swell from
150 just two years to more than 600
parishioners now — with a seemingly
unending flow of new refugees finding the way
to his congregation. Some come from cities as
far away as Rostock on the Baltic Sea, having
found out by word-of-mouth that Martens not
only baptizes Muslims after a three-month
"crash course" in Christianity, but also helps
them with asylum pleas.
Other Christian communities across Germany,
among them Lutheran churches in Hannover
and the Rhineland, have also reported growing
numbers of Iranians converting to
Christendom. There are no exact numbers on
how many Muslims have converted in
Germany in recent years — and they are a tiny
minority compared to the country's overall 4
million Muslims. But at least for Berlin,
Martens describes the number of conversions
as nothing short of a "miracle." And he says
he has at least another 80 people — mostly
refugees from Iran and a few Afghans —
waiting to be baptized.
Germany is witnessing an unprecedented
surge of asylum-seekers this year, with the
number of migrants expected to reach 800,000
this year, a fourfold increase on last year.
Many of the new arrivals come from Muslim
countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or
Pakistan. While refugees from civil-war-torn
Syria will almost definitely be receiving asylum
status, the situation is more complicated for
asylum seekers from Iran or Afghanistan,
which are seen as more stable. In recent
years, roughly 40-50 percent from those two
countries have been allowed to stay in the
country, with many of those getting only
temporary permission to remain.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and
Refugees said it does not comment on the
reasons individual applicants give when they
apply for asylum, or on how many people
receive refugee status in Germany based on
religious persecution.
Zonoobi, who dressed all in white for his
baptism on Sunday, said he had attended
secret religious services in Iran ever since
friends introduced him to the Bible at age 18.
He decided to flee to Germany after several
Christian friends were arrested for practicing
their religion.
For Zonoobi and his wife Afsaneh — who
since her baptism goes by the name of
Katarina — the christening marks a new
beginning.
"Now we are free and can be ourselves," she
said. "Most important, I am so happy
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