The Religion Faith of the Kyrgyzs (original) (raw)
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Historical Presentation of State-Religion Relations in Kyrgyzstan
In this study, state and religion relations in Kyrgyzstan, which appeared in world scene as an independent state in 1991 will be discussed. The issue of religious education, in which these relations are more observed and cause both internal and international disputes will be subject of factual evaluation as a sub sample. The purpose and basic thesis of the study, is to present the new aspects in Kyrgyz history deriving from the religious discourse, religion based movements and organizations that we come across at current social and political developments in Kyrgyzstan. In other words, purpose is to expose historical bases of institutional and social relations of Kyrgyzstan with religion if any, and if not, disconnections with the past. Within this framework, while making this analysis, history of Central Asia which Kyrgyzstan is a part of, its inheritances from the past inside the country's current borders will be taken into account and will be evaluated in competence with ethnic, social, economic and modernization criteria. Under the light of this factual evaluation, thesis of this study will be supported and some studies which are generally approved in literature will tried to be disproved and in the final stage, problematique that includes new titles of problems will be presented systematically.
In the past few decades, Central Asia has drawn the attention of academic and business communities as well as policy professionals because of its geostrategic importance (being located between Russia and China and in close proximity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and India), its international stability, and its rich energy resources. The region also faces challenges, such as post-conflict peacebuilding, impacts of the Afghan conflict, a number of recent inter-ethnic conflicts, and post-Socialist development paradigms. Approaching the problems and issues related to this region requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that takes into account political science, international relations, political economy, anthropology, geography, and security studies. The Politics and History in Central Asia series serves as a platform for emerging scholarship on this understudied region.
Islamic Religious Identity in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan
International Journal of Islamic Khazanah
This paper assesses the state of Islam in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. It examines the challenges Islam faces due to the diversity of ideologies bequeathed by the Soviet Union. Although Islam emerged as a dominant religious belief in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, due to the internal elements of secularism, Tengrism, and other indigenous ideologies, and the interpretation of Islamic lore coupled with the Soviet ideology of atheism, Islam remains syncretic with some loose extremism fuelled by home-grown socio-political factors and imported fundamentalism. It, therefore, concludes that the challenge to Islam and Islamic religious identity in contemporary Kyrgyzstan is a sort of ‘Muslimo-phobia’ rather than ‘Islamo-phobia’ because the challenge to Islam is clearly unleashed by the Muslims themselves and not the minority non-Muslim population.
“Nation, Religion, and Theology: What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Being Kyrgyz Means Being Muslim?’”
Central Asian Affairs, 2018
Scholars of Central Asia often view religion and ethno-national identity as being linked: “to be Kyrgyz (or Uzbek, Kazakh, etc.) is to be Muslim.” The specific ways in which the relationship between ethno-national identity and religion is constructed and understood, however, have not been adequately researched. “Being Muslim” is not merely an ethnic marker: it can imply a range of different, perhaps even competing, theologies with different relationships to national identity. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, this article investigates the question of what it means to be Kyrgyz and to be Muslim by undertaking a comparative analysis of two Islamic discourses: Kyrgyz ethno-national traditionalism and the normative Maturidi Hanafism promoted by the Kyrgyz state and the religious authorities. What emerges is a portrait of a complex and variegated religious landscape, one in which the meaning of being Kyrgyz and Muslim is continually questioned and renegotiated.
Contemporary Islam, 2019
This work of ethnoanthropology is built around personal interviews conducted by the author in the Kyrgyz town of Bazaar-Korgon from 2003 to 2004. She met many of these subjects during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1998 to 2000. This narrative personal investment in the study lends it depth and insight, but potentially troubles the broad claims made in the introduction and conclusion about the changes in conceptions and expressions of Islam in Kyrgyzstan and post-Soviet Muslim-majority countries more generally. That said, the conclusions drawn are insightful and offer reasonable explanations for the forms of Muslim identity that have emerged in these areas. The book opens onto a world in transition. The fall of Soviet socialism and the drawing back of state-enforced atheism coupled with the rise of capitalist democracy and secularism created space for Muslim expression in the public sphere. The author notes that Muslim identity had never been absent in these areas, which was considered as, and propagandized as, a testament to the inclusivity of the Soviet Union and the universality of the socialist spirit. Devout Muslim practice did not penetrate the public sphere, but the idea of a shared, though private, Muslim identity was never absent, as a regional identity, among Kyrgyz as well as Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tajiks, and Turkmen. In concurrence with a number of anthropological sources-this book excels at creating connections to other works while reconstructing an understudied narrative-the author writes, BIn Central Asia, both a space for and an idea of religion emerged… as part of an inchoate national identity. Acceptable religion became increasingly tied to home-Contemporary Islam
Since independence, Kyrgyzstan, like the other Central Asian states, has been confronted with the challenge of articulating a viable national identity. This project has involved the mobilization of a variety of ethno-national symbols, such as the epic Manas, to underpin the state’s nationalist ideology. At the same time, Kyrgyzstan’s population has also participated in the “Islamic revival” that has occurred across Central Asia. Consequently, as Kyrgyz Muslims debate the meaning of what constitutes “real” Islam, Kyrgyz national identity and traditions have become the sites of contestation and negotiation.
Religion, State & Society, 2014
Discussions of Islam present two analytical problems, one of interpretation and another of theory. Regarding interpretation, different frames – policy or ethnographic – for viewing religion influence our bias/understanding of religion and give us different senses of what ‘knowing’ the religion of a particular community means. The related issue is one of theory and connects to the problem of theorising movement: how people navigate their religious lives is not linear but much more random, related to events, and at times reified by (though always engaging with) the assumptions of policy agendas and the ethnographic imagination. Exploring implications that the policy and ethnographic frames have for Muslims in the Kyrgyz Republic, I argue that in synthesising the impact of different frames of analysis, a ‘theory of the rough ground’, while anything but neat, better portrays life as it is experienced locally.
Trends of the religiosity in a secular state: the reconstructing experience in the modern Kazakhstan
Sociology International Journal
An overview of the state and trends of religiosity in modern Kazakhstan on the basis of sociological measurements is offered. Since the beginning of the 90s, under the conditions of worldview pluralism and the absence of constitutional restrictions on the binding of a certain ideology, the role and the purpose of the religion in Kazakhstani society has substantially transformed. The functions of religion as an institution of socialization turned out to be in demand against the backdrop of a decline in the worldview influence of other institutions of socialization: family, education and media. Scientific research focuses on the dynamics of religious conversion. The authorities and society are concerned about the involvement of Kazakhstani citizens in religious institutions and practices that are not traditional for the mental culture, in the patterns of islamization, evangelism, and neo-orientalism. The government is trying to develop an optimal model of secularism and find a consens...
The Main Reasons for the Revival of Islam in Independent Kazakhstan
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2020
In the modern world history, we notice such phenomena as; globalization, digitalization, value pluralism, mass migration, terrorism, post-secularity, etc., which characterize the current nature of human civilization. Recently, among these trends, the phenomenon of the "revival of Islam" has emerged. Therefore, the systematic discussion relating to the phenomenon of Islam in the socio-cultural processes of the society has prevalent in religious studies. This topic has gained considerable attention by Kazakh researchers have also paid attention to this topic. The society of Kazakhstan has closely related to Islam in aspects of culture, history, personality, and morality. Since the collapse of the United Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR), Kazakhstan has gradually been becoming one of the fastest growing countries in Central Asia, focusing on modernization processes. Even though it follows secular nature of constitution, it has not only allowed the reentrance of traditional religious presence, but scholars have also noticed features of religious revival. Purpose of the article analyze the main factors that activated the mass-revival of Islam within the Kazakh society after the country's independence. Leading methods − conceptual analysis, structural analysis, and comparative analysis. Thanks to a systematic generalization of domestic and foreign researchers' views, as well as sociological data, it became possible to form common knowledge about the causes of the revival of Islam in Kazakhstan.