Mysterious Mass Conversion From Islam to Christianity in Georgia

From Journey to Orthodoxy:

In 1991, 75% of Adjarians in Georgia were Muslims. Today, they have become 75% Orthodox Christians. How can these conversions be explained, which is apparently unique in the world? 

But the facts are there, Adjara, conquered by the Ottomans in the seventeenth century, was overwhelmingly Muslim. In 1878, this province of 3000 km2 falls into the lap of the Russian Empire. In 1991, after the fall of communism and the independence of Georgia, Adjara seceded. Until 2004, the “independent” Republic is ruled by a dictator, a Muslim, Aslan Abashidze, now on the run. Since then Adjara (400,000) has returned to the bosom of Georgia. 

According to official documents, in 1991, 75% of Adjarians were Muslims. They are now 75% Orthodox. How can this mass conversion be explained? In a long interview published in December 2012, Metropolitan Dimitri of Batumi (the capital of Adjara), also nephew of Ilia II, Patriarch of Georgia, says he was appointed parish priest of St. Nicholas in Batumi in 1986. At that time, there was only one Orthodox church in Batumi. 

The Metropolitan of Batumi says that Adjarians were forcibly converted to Islam by the Ottomans though, in fact, they remained Christian at heart. According to his statement, they continued to secretly wear a cross, they painted Easter eggs, and they retained the icons in their homes. 

Dimitri says that many priests come from Muslim families. The rector of the seminary is the grandson of a mullah, formed in Istanbul. How does he explain the conversions brought forward on the website Provoslavie i mir (Orthodoxy and the World): 

“It is God’s will. It is a miracle of God, for unexplained reasons that could not have been predicted,” says Dimitri.