BERLIN, Jan. 16 (UPI) — The number of Germans converting to Islam has quadrupled in recent years, a German news magazine reported.

Between July 2004 and June 2005, some 4,000 Germans converted to Islam, four times more cases than in the year before, German news magazine Der Spiegel said in its latest issue, citing a study on Islamic life in Germany financed by the Interior Ministry to be published later this year.

While in recent years mostly women who married Muslim men converted, many people today deliberately and voluntarily converted, the report said, according to the magazine.

Many of the converts have previously been firm Christians who have lost their faith; others simply searched for an alternative.

The current debate around the integration of Muslims in Europe has put Islam on the forefront of Europe’s media scene, causing it to become more widely known as an alternative, Der Spiegel said.

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