Conversions to Islam and Identity Reconfigurations among Poles in Great Britain
Conversions to Islam and Identity Reconfigurations among Poles in Great Britain

Summary/Abstract: In recent decades, a significant number of Polish citizens have not only left the country but also moved away from the religious traditions in which they were brought up. The article sheds light on the phenomenon of religious conversions and identity reconfigurations within the Polish community in Great Britain. It delves into the intricate processes of religious self-transformations and their impact on other forms of identity among Poles who have embraced Islam in the context of migration. It also assesses the processes of converts’ distancing themselves from the elements of ethnicity and religion in which they were born and adopting new ones amid an atmosphere of increased antiMuslim sentiments and stigmatization. The paper draws from fieldwork data carried out amongst Polish Muslim converts living in different British cities between 2014 and 2016. It analyses their relations with the Polish community in the United Kingdom, the British Muslim population, as well as their larger sending and receiving societies. It argues that the processes of religious conversion and migration are frequently interrelated, as a significant proportion of the over 2,000 Polish Muslims in Britain embraced Islam either after their arrival in the country or elsewhere before coming to the UK. The paper also shows how the change of religious identity leads to the adoption of new traditions and habits and to a process of at least partial distancing from non-Muslim relatives and elements of non-Muslim Polish culture. The converts thus engage in construction of hybrid identities, linking elements of Polishness with super-diverse British Muslimness.

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