Paper short abstract:

Fear against ‘aliens’ in the period of ‘refugee crisis’ in Poland is interpreted in anthropological terms. A figure of ‘distant Others’ is seen a tool for creating exclusive ideological unity of the ‘true patriots’ who condemn ‘internal Others’, as well as masking class differences and inequalities.

Paper long abstract:

Various historical experiences with Muslims in Europe, and especially a recent wave of immigrants and refugees from Middle East and Africa, influenced contemporary Islamophobia in the West. Today's attitudes towards the Muslim Other in several postcommunist countries result from the most recent history marked by the spread of nationalisms, existence of relatively ethnically homogenous states, as well as post-September 11, 2001 fear of 'Islamic terrorism'. In the last years such panic, marked by 'migrant crisis', has been bolstered by media coverage about refugees flooding Europe. In the case of Poland (and similarly in Czechia and Slovakia), it is a phantom Islamophobia, because the number of Muslims in the country is minimal, while refugees are virtually absent. Intolerance towards them results from the image of ethnically and religiously homogeneous society, which appears as the 'natural' and positively valued form of the polity's organization. Created as culturally 'distant Others' Muslims pose threat to the integrity of the nation. These phenomena are interpreted in anthropological terms of cultural apartheid and fundamentalism. A figure of 'distant Others' is considered as a rhetorical device which helps to create exclusive moral unity of the 'true patriots' opposed to 'internal Others', i.e. 'pinkos/left wingers', 'gender ideologists', and 'cosmopolitans'. Such ideological divisions map the political but cross-cut class differences and veil social inequalities.