Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first systematic study of Polish women's conversion to Islam in English. Through interviews with Polish female converts to Islam and ethnographic observation, we learn about their journey to Islam in a country where Muslims constitute less than 0,5% of the population and experience daily struggles related to maintaining their national and religious identities sometimes considered to be spoiled. The analysis presented in the book illuminates different factors that shape the converts' religious lives: attempts to establish "Polish Islam" with its unique cultural flavor; a new hybrid language that includes Polish, English and Arabic elements; intersectional identities as women, Muslims, Poles, and Eastern European immigrants among those who live outside of Poland. This study offers a fascinating window into the lives of Muslims in a sociopolitical context that is considered to be on the margins of the "Muslim world."
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures Notes on Authors Introduction 1 Setting the Scene: Islam in Poland 2 The Socio-Demographic Profile of Survey Respondents 3 Old and New Connections: Religious and Cultural Belonging Post-conversion among Polish Female Converts to Islam in the UK 4 Polish Platonic Islamophobia 5 Language of Polish Female Converts to Islam 6 Converted Bodies: Interior Life and Embodied Religious Practices of Polish Female Converts to Islam 7 From a ‘Salafi Bite’ to the ‘Middle Way’ Conclusions Glossary Index
