BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST: THE PENETRATION OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAM INTO POLAND

Abstract

The internet is one of the fastest developing media of today. It is through the internet that Islamic ideas spread throughout the world on a level that has never been reported before. Internet portals and web‐sites containing information about Muslim religion and culture can be accessed from the furthest corners of the world. They popularize Islam which for ages seemed to have been attributed exclusively to the Middle East, Northern Africa and South‐East Asia. Poland is located on the Islam's expansion route and takes an extremely important, if not strategic, position. Due to the position of the Catholic religion in our country, the development of Islam in Poland (an increasing number of converts) appears to be a fundamental factor in the growth of the Muslim world. Many believers do not conceal the fact that they dream of the European caliphate, which is an important step in the restoration of the world caliphate. “Religious fundamentalism” of Polish people, according to many Muslim clergymen and political activists, guarantees that Islamic believers obtained in our country as opposed to converts from the “lay West”, will be as active and religiously engaged as the believers of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, in the following paper on the penetration of contemporary Islam into Poland, I will focus on this most dynamic instrument of the expansion of the Islamic world.