ISLAMOPHOBIA REPORT

EUROPEAN ISLAMOPHOBIA REPORT 2015
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Although Poland has a very small Muslim community it is not immune to Islamophobia.
The cross-European research from 2011 has actually showed that among
the eight nations involved in the study, Poles were the most critical towards Islam.
This report argues that 2015 was a crucial year in the public expression of Islamophobia
in Poland since it transformed from being a discourse mainly in the margins
of society and politics to become part of the mainstream. This was caused above all
by the coupling of a number of internal factors such as presidential and parliamentary
elections and numerous external ones and in particular, the so-called ‘refugee
crisis’, the terrorist attacks in Tunisia and France and the other atrocities of ISIS.
The report begins with the assessment of key developments and Islamophobic
incidents in 2015 and then analyses Islamophobia in various spheres of social life. It
points out key institutions that used Islamophobic speech last year as well as some
counter-Islamophobia initiatives. It argues that the process of Muslim ‘Othering’ has
been closely linked to wider socio-political transformations in Polish society and national
as well as pan-European identity construction processes. Thus, Islamophobia
is partially an import and partially a “home-made” phenomenon. The report argues
that anxiety and fear in relation to Islam and Muslims exists in Poland, not because
large numbers of Muslims live in the country or have recently arrived to it, but
rather because their number is so small and because they lack human and financial
means to effectively resist the processes of stereotyping and stigmatisation.
The mass media play a very important role in the social construction of the fear
of Islam and Muslim in the country. The report claims that high anti-Muslim sentiments
in Poland can be also partially understood within the postcolonial framework
of uncritical import of Western fears and processes of globalization/Europeanization
in the context of losing the traditional Polish “Others” and searching for new ones.
One of the ways of restraining the rise of anti-Muslim sentiments in the country is a
more dynamic involvement of the state apparatus in the fight against all forms of racism
and xenophobia in the country, as well as, closer cooperation between academia,
civil society and the state towards building a more inclusive and tolerant society.
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