Islamophobia in Poland is the fear, hatred of, or prejudice against the Islamic religion or Muslims in Poland. Since the
Muslim community in Poland is small (0.1% of the population) the situation has been described as "Islamophobia without Muslims".
[Goździak, Elżbieta M., and Péter Márton. "Where the wild things are: Fear of Islam and the anti-refugee rhetoric in Hungary and in Poland."](_blank)
Central and Eastern European Migration Review 17.2 (2018): 125-151. According to
Monika Bobako, Islamophobia is one of the main elements of the Polish nationalist discourse. Islamophobia in Poland takes the form of racism and xenophobia towards Muslims or those perceived as Muslim.
Background and context
![Tatar kossak](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Tatar_kossak.JPG)
Prior to World War II, the vast majority of Poland's Muslim population was
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different , who had been present in Poland since the 14th century. However the boundary changes of the war left most of the Tatars outside of Poland, and this led the Polish Muslim community to be increasingly diverse.
[Narkowicz, Kasia, and Konrad Pędziwiatr. "Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia." Gender, Place & Culture 24.2 (2017): 288-299.](_blank)
/ref> According to a 2015 estimate, Muslims in Poland are estimated to number between 25,000 to 40,000 people or some 0.1% of the population, and are composed of some 5,000 Lipka Tatars
The Lipka Tatars (Lipka – refers to ''Lithuania'', also known as Lithuanian Tatars; later also – Polish Tatars, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars, ''Lipkowie'', ''Lipcani'', ''Muślimi'', ''Lietuvos totoriai'') are a Turkic ethnic group who origina ...
as well as more numerous recent immigrants.[The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland: Between Nationalism, Fear and Empathy](_blank)
Palgrave Macmillan, chapter by Krzysztof Jaskulowski, 2019, pages 31-53 During communist rule the censorship office barred unfavorable portrayals of Muslims due to Poland's geopolitical alignment with Arab countries during this period. After World War 2, The Muslim Religious Association grew leading to the eventual migration of Muslim Arab students to Poland during the 1970s and 80s. Today, most Muslim immigrants are arriving from Syria, Chechnya, Iraq, Tajikistan and Bangladesh.
Immigration of Poles to the United Kingdom has led many migrants from the homogeneous Polish society to encounter a culturally diverse setting for the first time. This contact, coupled with continued contact with family members in Poland, has led to a transnational transfer of Islamophobia back into Poland.
While Islamophobia existed previously in Poland, in connection to Polish casualties in the War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
and mosque construction in 2010 and 2012, the 2015 European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
made Islamophobia a central issue. Many non-Muslim Poles associate Islam with violence and terrorism. In conjunction, xenophobic
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
attitudes increased in Poland including antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and Islamophobia
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
. As of 2018 Poland exhibits one of the highest rates of Islamophobia in Europe.
Polls
According to a 2011 poll, 47% of Poles stated that "too many Muslims live in Poland", and 62% stated that "Islam is an intolerant religion", the highest rate of the eight countries surveyed in the poll. A 2017 poll of Polish secondary school pupils showed that the majority expressed strong homophobic, anti-refugee, and Islamophobic prejudice.
Between January and October 2017, 664 anti-Muslim hate crime proceedings were started in Poland, of which 193 proceeded to an indictment. Muslims were the most targeted group, and some 20% of all recorded hate crimes were directed at Muslims.
Whereas the normal age distribution of prejudice is tilted towards older people, the opposite is true in Poland: A 2015 opinion poll showed 59 percent of 18 to 24 years associated Islam with dangers contrasted with 37 percent of those older than 65. According to a 2016 poll, Poles significantly overestimate the size of the small Muslim community, believing that there are 2.6 million Muslims in Poland and that the Muslim population is expected to increase to 5 million (13 percent of the population) by 2020.
In a 2018 poll of Catholic seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
students, 75 percent said they had no contact with Muslims. On a negative/positive scale of +50 to -50, students placed Catholicism at 44, Orthodox Christianity at 23, Islam at -8.4, and Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
at -10.2. 80 percent responded that Islam encourages violence, a notion that extends to individual Muslims which 80 percent viewed as more aggressive than non-Muslims. Almost 80 percent of future priests indicated that Muslims mistreat Women. Some 44 percent supported (partially or fully) the banning of Islam in Poland.
According to a 2016 study, many Poles incorrectly believe every Muslim is Arab and that vice versa every Arab is Muslim. 48% of Arab respondents said they experience racism in Poland and 26% said they were physically assaulted. Despite this hostility, Arab respondents think that while some Poles are racist, most are not.[Switat, Mustafa. "Arabic Community in Poland–Facts and Myths." Yearbook of Polish European Studies 19 (2016): 249-260. Switat, Mustafa. "Arabic Community in Poland–Facts and Myths." Yearbook of Polish European Studies 19 (2016): 249-260.](_blank)
/ref>
Mosques
In 2010 the planned the first purpose-built mosque in Warsaw in the Ochota
Ochota () is a district of Warsaw, Poland, located in the central part of the Polish capital city's urban agglomeration.
The biggest housing estates of Ochota are:
* Kolonia Lubeckiego
* Kolonia Staszica
* Filtry
* Rakowiec
* Szosa Krakowska
...
district. A group called ''Europe of the Future'' ( pl, Europa Przyszłości) organized protests against construction, framing their opposition in terms of "European values" of freedom of expression, secularism, democratic ideals, and women's rights. Prior to the protest, the group distributed posters resembling prior Swiss posters with a niqab clad woman and minarets resembling missiles.
In 2012, the Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
community attempted to build a mosque in the Włochy
Włochy () is one of the districts of Warsaw, located in the south-western part of city. Włochy borders districts Bemowo and Wola from the north, Ochota and Mokotów from the east, and Ursus and Ursynów from the south.
History
It is not k ...
district of Warsaw. ''Europa Przyszłości'', who were the main opponents of the Ochota mosque, declared they would not protest as they viewed the Ahmadiyya community as peaceful. However, local councilors opposed the mosque construction, and most of the neighborhood signed a petition organized by Law and Justice
Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
councilors. The local council rejected the plan in 2013. While much of the opposition to the mosque employed spatial planning concerns, a subtext of resentment towards Muslims was evident in the debate as well as in the council's rejection letter which noted that "the construction of a culturally foreign object is a reason for concern regarding the loss of value of the estates in Włochy".
The Ochota mosque, the first in Warsaw, was finally opened before the Ramadan of 2015, a turning point in Polish Islamic history. However, the mosque had been faced with hostilities since construction, including an incident it was shot at and the tossing of a pig's head into the building after it opened. Furthermore, a wave of attacks against Polish mosques accompanied construction, including notably the drawing of a pig's head on the Kruszyniany Mosque
Kruszyniany Mosque is a wooden mosque located in the village of Kruszyniany, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland. The building is the oldest Lipka Tatar mosque in Poland, built on the plan of a rectangle, in specifications of 10 by 13 metres.
Hi ...
of the Tatar community who had previously lived in Poland for hundreds of years without hostilities directed at them.
Women
Traditionally Lipka Tatar women did not wear the hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
, making the visibility of Muslim women in Polish society a recent trend. Kasia Narkowicz and Konrad Pędziwiatr have stated in their co-authored paper that this visibility has made Muslim women targets of Islamophobia by two camps: right-wing Catholicism and a secular liberal camp. While these two camps share little in common value, the Islamophobic expression towards the bodies of Muslim women is shared, both camps stating that Muslim women face oppression.[Narkowicz, Kasia, and Konrad Pędziwiatr. "Saving and fearing Muslim women in ‘post-communist’Poland: troubling Catholic and secular Islamophobia" Gender, Place & Culture 24.2 (2017): 288-299.](_blank)
/ref>
In Polish Islamophobic discourse, veiled Muslim women are symbolized as threatening in conjunction with the narrative that the women themselves are oppressed. The gendered anti-Muslim narratives in Poland is a version of "gendered exceptionalism" similar to that prevalent in Western countries in which the patriarchy of the ingroup is minimized while the patriarchy of the outgroup is emphasized.
Political parties
Law and Justice
Following the European migration crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and Human migration, migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the cont ...
, migration has become a central issue in Polish politics. The ruling Law and Justice
Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
(PiS) party has adopted the discourse typical of the far-right in Europe. PiS has linked national security with migration, and connected refugees with Muslims. In their statements, PiS politicians used falsified data and differentiated between refugees and so called economic migrants which had wholly negative connotations. Following the 2015 Polish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015 for the eighth term of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, which ran from 12 November 2015 until 2019.
The election was won by the largest opposition par ...
, PiS cemented control of public media
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
and utilized Islamophobic rhetoric to rally its supporters. The mainstreaming of Islamophobic discourse may lend legitimacy to physical violence versus the "racialized Other".
Extreme right
While in other countries, such as the Czech Republic, there have been positive relations between the extreme right and Islamism
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...
, in Poland this is rare. In the 2006, League of Polish Families
The League of Polish Families (Polish: ''Liga Polskich Rodzin'', LPR) is a conservative political party in Poland, with many far-right elements in the past. The party's original ideology was that of the National Democracy movement which was heade ...
's MP Wojciech Wierzejski
Wojciech Wierzejski (; born 6 September 1976 in Biała Podlaska) is a former Politics of Poland, Polish politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Warsaw with the League of Polish Families, part of the Independence and Demo ...
wrote a blog entry titled "Resistance to Islam" which was criticized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is the name of non-governmental organizations in a number of countries established under the now defunct International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.
The organizations include:
*
*Turkmen Helsinki F ...
. In 2007 a branch of Stop Islamisation of Europe was established in Poland, and from 2010 the conservative ''Europe of the Future'' led by Jan Wójcik and the Euroislam.pl portal led by Piotr Slusarczyk have become vocal.
Islamophobic
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
groups like the "Polish Defense League" were formed to defend Polish honor and prevent Polish women from being seduced by Muslim men.
During 2015 elections, the KORWiN party ran an openly racist advertisement titled "The invasion has started" showing aggressive dark-skinned men coupled with derogatory statements and world map in which white marked parts succumbed to a black invasion.
Media
On public television, guests have spoken of Muslims as "uncivilized" and a threat to "European and Christian values" and have described them as "violent": as "Jihadists", "terrorists", and "rapists". Piela and Łukjanowicz contend that guests they say engage in anti-Muslim rhetoric— Miriam Shaded (director of the Estera Foundation), Tomasz Terlikowski, Wojciech Cejrowski
Wojciech Daniel Cejrowski (born 27 June 1964 in Elbląg) is a Polish radio journalist, satirist, photographer, traveller, author of books and press publications, artistic director of the Discover World library, member of The Explorers Club.
Ed ...
, Marcin Rola, Witold Gadwoski and Dariusz Oko—are "handpicked" by the networks.[Anna Paela and Anna Łukjanowicz. "The state of islamophobia in Europe." Islamophobia in Poland report 2017 pp. 464-482](_blank)
/ref> One evening program on TVP—''After Eight''—has hosted guests overtly hostile to Islam, one of whom referred to the Qur'an as a Satanic book "about hatred and intolerance" in contrast to the Bible, which the guest called "a book about love". While the moderate wing of the Catholic Church has espoused tolerance, the opinions of those closer to the conservative wing of the Church, expressed in ''Fronda.pl'' and ''Polonia Christiana'' (PCh24.pl), have been significant in their contribution to the stereotyping of refugees and Muslims.
In 2016, the right-wing ''wSieci'' magazine ran a cover with a white women assaulted by dark males under the title "The Islamic rape of Europe" which evoked outrage, and has been compared to WWII propaganda with the same imagery.
According to Jaskulowski, the more liberal Polish media (Polityka
''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050 (as of April 2011), it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of ''Newsweek''s Polish edition, ''Newsweek Polska'', and ''Wpr ...
and Gazeta Wyborcza
''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...
) opposed the right-wing discourse of fear and focused in some instances on the human aspect of the immigration story, but have also used spoken of a "flood" and a "wave".
Role of the Catholic Church
While Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
has called for Catholic communities to aid refugees, this call has not been well received in Poland. Some Polish bishops have questioned the papal call, and some younger priests have taken an active role in anti-Muslim and anti-refugee protests. This has contributed to Islamophobia moving from the fringes to mainstream discourse in Poland.
Whereas in other Western countries Islamophobia has been linked with concerns of public displays of faith by Muslims, in Poland it has been connected to the Catholic church and the notion of European re-Christianization
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
. The othering of Muslims is used to rally the faithful around "Christian" values in order to halt the imagined "conquest of Europe" by Islam.
One of the key targets of Catholic Islamophobic narratives is Muslim women. Within this narrative, Muslim women are seen as reproducers of the faith, a message that fits within the Church's emphasis on reproductive politics.
The Polish Catholic church is composed of two camps: authoritarian, nationalist, traditionalist Catholicism
Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, Christian liturgy, liturgical forms, Catholic devotions, devotions, and presentations of Catholic Church, Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church befo ...
and open post-conciliar Catholicism. While the leaders of the Church expressed themselves in the discourse of the open church, they also evoked the terrorist threat of the religious other. Furthermore, the church leaders endorsed a "help them where they are" (in refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...
s outside Poland) approach towards refugees, which was adopted by the ruling PiS party. A small group, connected to the liberal and Tygodnik Powszechny
''Tygodnik Powszechny'' (, ''The Common Weekly'') is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sap ...
and Więź publications, expressed true open church sentiments criticizing the restrained approach of the Church hierarchy and the anti-refugee bishops. The opposing traditionalist bishop criticized the Church hierarchy as well, and expressed Islamophobic clichés. Archbishop Henryk Hoser
Henryk Franciszek Hoser (27 November 1942 – 13 August 2021) was a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop-bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Warszawa-Praga in Poland from 2008 to 2017.
Biography
Hoser was trained as a p ...
stated that jihadists
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
controlled the migration and that communities of refugees would be a "perfect breeding ground for the recruitment of fanatics".
Incidents
In 2013, the Jewish and Tatar communities in Poland jointly protested a halal and kosher slaughter ban.
According to the anti-racist organization "Never Again", the "biggest wave of hatred" in recent history took place during the Polish elections of 2015 when significant street protests against other ethnic and religious groups took place, focusing on Muslim refugees.
The January Ełk riots
The Islamophobia in Poland, anti-Muslim Ełk riots occurred on 1 January 2017 in the town of Ełk, Poland, after 21-year-old Daniel Rudnicki stole two Coke bottles from a local kebab eatery and was murdered by the establishment's cook (a Tunisia, ...
occurred after a thief was killed by a local Kebab shop employee of Moroccan origin. Several hundred men surrounded the ''Prince Kebab'' restaurant, chanting racist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans,[Zawadzka, Anna. "Drinking vodka with anti-Semites. A case study of ‘Polish-Jewish relations’ today." Adeptus 11 (2018): 1-23.](_blank)
/ref>[Tunisian charged over Poland stabbing that sparked riot](_blank)
BBC, 2 January 2017 and tossing firecrackers, stones, and Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
s at the shop.[Died by the kebab knife](_blank)
NRC Handelsblad
''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands.
History
''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...
, 29 December 2017, Roeland Termote & Pieter van Os Police initially stood by and did not intervene for several hours, however when they did intervene the crowd turned against them as well. Other attacks on Kebab
Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...
restaurants took place throughout Poland.
In November 2017 on Polish Independence Day
National Independence Day ( pl, Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) is a national day in Poland celebrated on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the ...
, marchers in a 60,000 strong nationalist march in Poland expressed antisemitic and Islamophobic sentiments. Jarosław Kaczyński
Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński (; born 18 June 1949) is a Polish politician who is currently serving as leader of the Law and Justice party (known by its Polish acronym PiS), which he co-founded in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, w ...
, leader of the governing PiS, described the incidents as "marginal", saying the marchers may have been baited. According to the American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
the march was "seriously marred by hateful, far-right throngs that threaten the core values of Poland and its standing abroad". Prior to the march, called a "great march of patriots" by state TV, government-controlled media in Poland disseminated accounts of alleged Muslim criminal activity.
Later in November 2017, amidst a rise in xenophobic incidents, two hooded men smashed a dozen windows in the Muslim cultural centre in Warsaw.
In 2019, Polish president Andrzej Duda
Andrzej Sebastian Duda (; born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the ...
awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident ab ...
to Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views.
Editor from 1982 t ...
who had previously been dismissed from his UK government role following comments on Jews and Islamophobia. Scruton had said that Islamophobia had been "invented by the Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
in order to stop discussion of a major issue".
In January 2021, two men in Warsaw were charged for planning to bomb a mosque. Explosives and firearms were found at the premises belonging to the two men. The men's motives were to "prevent the Islamization of Poland" and to "exterminate" Muslims.
References
{{World topic, prefix=Islamophobia in, noredlinks=y, title=Islamophobia by country
Islam in Poland
Anti-Islam sentiment in Poland
Racism in Poland
Islamophobia in Poland