POLAND: One of Europe's oldest Muslim communities celebrates Eid

Record ID: 438535

  • Title: POLAND: One of Europe's oldest Muslim communities celebrates Eid
  • Date: 13th September 2010
  • Summary: WOMEN PRAYING TROUGH VEILED GALLERY WINDOW CLOSE VIEW OF YOUNG BOY PRAYING PEOPLE SITTING UP AT THE END OF PRAYER
  • Embargoed: 28th September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAAN8VWNRYHB0HAARRQKTT5PCY1
  • Story Text: One of Europe's oldest Muslim populations has been celebrating the end of Ramadan in North Eastern Poland near the border with Belarus.
    The Eid ul-Fitr festival, which signifies the end of the holy month of fasting, was on Sunday (September 12) in its third and final day across the Muslim world.
    During the seventeenth century Islamic Tatar warrior mercenaries were invited by King Jan III Sobieski to settle in an area close to Poland's borders with Prussia and Russia in order to help defend the then-Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.
    Due to a lack of funds the Tatars were paid instead with land and given nobility status.
    In the villages of Bohiniki and Kruszyniany the mosques specially built by Poles for their employed allies to worship in are still used today by a thriving and proud community directly descended form the same Tatars.
    Due to the fact that the villages do not have their own Imams the community invites an Imam from the nearby city of Bialystok to oversee proceedings on holy days.
    Fellow Tatar and Imam, Janusz Aleksandrowicz, led prayer on Friday (September 10) in Kruszyniany as Ramadan ended.
    He explained how entrenched the Tatar community now is in a Polish society that before the Muslim Tatars arrived, already had two religions - Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholics.
    "We here in Poland are an example of how co-existence can work between two religions. For example, here in this village during the good times when many citizens lived here there were three religions and everybody helped each other. They didn't judge each other because of their beliefs. It didn't matter if they were Catholic, Orthodox or Muslim. They even celebrated holy holidays together. They respected each other. They were examples of true Islamic and Christian principles. They worked together, co-existed by helping each other, as it should be. But these days it has changed a little. It's a pity, it's a pity. I regret this," said Imam Aleksandrowicz.
    The overwhelmingly Catholic country of Poland does not have many ethnic minorities compared to its Western European neighbours but in this small case the peaceful co-existence of Muslims in a Christian world is a refreshing success story for the often-strained relationship that the two faiths currently have.
    Aleksandrowicz went on to defend his community's slightly more relaxed form of Islam which has adopted certain eccentricities that are not seen in Arabic Islam.
    "We've had trouble keeping in touch with the Islamic world over the years. Our Fathers' and our Grandfathers' generations didn't have free access to information about Islam. This is the reason that some things have slipped away from memory and there are obscurities in the way our understanding has evolved. This is the reason there are differences. We cannot say that some Muslims are not Muslims. They ARE Muslims, but in their own way. Everyone cultivates their own religion on a level that they understand it to be," he said.
    After prayer the congregation breaks the fast by exchanging sweets in a warm and friendly manner before walking the short distance to the cemetery where Tatar's have been buried for over 250 years.
    It is customary to pray for the dead by placing a hand on the grave of whom you are mourning as you recite from a book of prayers.
    Eighty nine-year-old second world war veteran Jan Jasinski comes to Kruszyniany every year to visit the graves of his ancestors. "What can I say? I'm not from this village but for a number of years I have lived in Sokolka. Each year I come for this service and visit the Mazar (Muslim cemetery). My mother is buried here, my mother-in-law, wives brothers, they are all in this Mazar," he said as he clutched two mushrooms that he had just plucked from the nearby woods.
    In the nearby sister village of Bohiniki similar celebrations were taking place. Catholic Wladyslawa Artus has lived in the village all her life. "It's good! I have been living here for such a long time and I have no complaints. It's very good. With Russians,... I'm a woman of faith, I am Catholic. I want to live the way that god taught us," she said.
    The man who welcomes visitors and intrigued tourists to look around the Mosque that he looks after in Kruszyniany described how the villagers share their religions with each other and make the traditional holidays social occasions, "Everyone respects each others customs. It's obvious that during the Christian holidays I will not be working on my farm, disturbing my neighbours. The neighbours behave this way too. We invite each other around for each other's holy holidays. A good example of our co-existence is this; The total population of Kuszyniany is 60 people. There are 9 Tatars here and the village leader is Ewa Halecka, a Tatar woman who was chosen by the predominantly Christian community. So it must be a strong bond if the Christians choose a Tatar lady to be the boss of the village." Dzemil Gebicki said.
    From a population of 38 million Poland's Tatars number approximately 5500.
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