A significant number of Muslim asylum seekers hailing from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq are converting to Christianity, reported the national broadcaster Yle quoting the Evangelical Lutheran administrators.

A parish in eastern Finland is offering religious teaching for the newly converted people. The Evangelical Lutheran parishes have also started to operate confirmation schooling for Muslim refugees who want to be converted to Christianity.

No exact figure of the converts is recorded but the number of emigrants who have renounced Islam in favour of Christianity in recent years is estimated at several hundred, said the Yle report quoting Mar-ja-Liisa Laihia, an expert from the church’s central administration.

Twenty Afghani youths are now enrolled in pre-confirmation teaching at the Tainionkoski parish centre in Imatra and they got copies of the New Testament in Dari language at their disposal.

The teaching itself is in English, with a Dari interpreter on hand via Skype, said the Yle report.

“Asylum seekers began attending our services. So we reacted by starting up the lessons,” pastor Vesa Julin told Yle.

Many of the newly converted cited dissatisfaction or disappointment at Islam as the reason for their conversion.

“They understand that there are different rules in Finland and that people should be treated with respect,” Lauri Perälä, the chief of Imatra reception centre told Yle.