Świat muzułmański a Zachód : czy grozi nam ponowna polaryzacja ?

The „risk void” that was temporarily created after the collapse of the Soviet Union was soon filled by the conflict between the West and the world of Islam. The main factor contributing to the escalation of the conflict were increasing disproportions in the socio-economic development of the Middle East and Western countries. The advent of globalization exacerbated the conflict further - owing to the ever increasing access to the press, Internet and TV, the poor masses realised the enormous difference that separated them from the affluent West. The Muslim perception of the West is heavily influenced by the sense of backwardness and inadequacy as well as by the tendency to negate the materialistic ways of the Western world, which is claimed to have hostile intentions against Islam. A number of factors are responsible for the formation of such attitudes, among them: (1) experiences from the colonial period, during which Muslim peoples were subjugated by European empires, (2) the expansion of the Western lifestyle, perceived by the Muslims as contrary to the teachings of Koran, alongside with the forceful attempts at transplanting Western solutions to Islam reality, (3) the widely held conviction of American partiality towards Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the political and military involvement of the USA in the Middle East. Yet, the most crucial factor is the economic inefficiency of the Muslim countries, which, paired with a high birth rate, traps them in a vicious circle of poverty. It should be noted that a dislike for Islam is deeply rooted in European culture. The reasons for this are of twofold nature - historical and religious. Both the West and Islam have not always been able to understand each other’s systems of values, which only strengthened their mutual prejudices. Nowadays the Muslim world has become one of the most important fronts in the war of "the poor against the rich". In extreme cases the control is seized by groups who use terror tactics as their weapon.