OUR NEWS. There will be no Muslim Center in Białystok funded by Saudi Arabia! "The idea is out of date"

There will be no Muslim Center in Białystok funded by Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) has not granted permission to establish it. And the mufti Tomasz Miśkiewicz, who announced that such a centre will be built, admits now that this will not happen.

The idea is out of date.

— it was said briefly by mufti Miśkiewicz. However, he did not answer the questions asked by e-mail about whether the murder of a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Turkey had some influence on the decision concerning the centre.

It is unofficially known that the centre in Bialystok could bear the name of the Saudi successor to the throne, Prince Muhammad ibn-Salman, who, according to reports from intelligence agencies, ordered the brutal killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khaszukji.

The Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) seems very reluctant with regard to the Muslim centre in Białystok - I was only able to obtain information that the decision to establish it was not issued.

This idea was controversial from the very beginning. During the New Year’s Eve meeting of President Andrzej Duda with representatives of various religions, the mufti of the Muslim Religious Union Tomasz Miśkiewicz stated that the year 2018 will be a very special for Polish Muslims; he announced that a Muslim Centre of Culture and Education will be established in Białystok and the money for it will be generously and benevolently donated by Saudi Arabia.

Mufti was talking about it had already been accomplished. However, it soon turned out that the Polish Tatars, whom Miśkiewicz wants to represent, do not want such a centre. They learned about this idea from the press, because the mufti had consulted this decision with diplomats of Saudi Arabia, but not with them. Experts warned from the very beginning that the construction of the centre for Saudi money favours the spread of Islamic extremism. Europe has already learnt this lesson and has drawn conclusions.

Where Saudi Arabia sponsors community centres, religious and educational institutions, it turns out very often that they are linked to the spread of Wahabi thought, a dangerous form of Islam. So we have a chance to avoid mistakes made by other countries.

Joachim Brudziński, the head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, spoke critically about the idea of the Saudi-funded centre in Białystok; he said that it did not seem appropriate for Orthodox Wahabis to support Polish Tatars.

The idea of Wahabism is understood differently. Saudi Arabia protects the religious identity of its citizens. It also has the right to give grants to Muslims all over the world. If it is criticised, please remember that Poland can also be accused of fundamentalism - Christianity. The growing xenophobic moods in Poland and nationalist marches are, after all, widely discussed in the whole world

— mufti Miśkiewicz told me a few months ago.

The Arab fascination of the mufti is the subject of comments in the environment of Polish Tatars. Tartars, who have lived in Poland for centuries, usually show great reserve in relation to Muslim immigrants from other countries; they feel their cultural alienation.

Miśkiewicz, who went to Saudi Arabia to study Koranic as a 15-year-old boy, is the exception. His opponents stress that he not only surrounds himself with Muslims from Arab countries and Turkey, but even favours them. They also did not like it when he claimed that in the age of globalisation, all followers of Islam should unite.

Maja Narbutt - reporter and journalist, associated with „Rzeczpospolita” for most of her professional life. She was a correspondent for this newspaper in Lithuania, a special envoy for war zones in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans. She has been awarded several times by the SDP and nominated for the Press award for her foreign and domestic reportages. Until 28 November 2012 she published in „Uważam Rze”.