INTRODUCTION
Reassessing the Islamic Revival in Central Asia
Pauline Jones
For most of the 1990s, there was a broad consensus that Central Asia was experiencing an Islamic revival analogous to what occurred throughout the Islamic world in the 1970s and 1980s, And yet, despite over two decades of research, at the end of the 2000s we still lacked a thorough understanding of: (1) the extent, nature, and meaning of Central Asias Islamic revival, and (2) its social and political impact over time. The purpose of this edited volume is to shed light on both of these major questions by bringing together an international group of scholars from a variety of disciplines who offer a fresh perspective based on recent empirical work in one or more of the Central Asian states.
Admittedly, the chapters contained in this edited volume do not represent the first attempt to address these critical gaps in our knowledge. Most of what we know about the Islamic revival in post-Soviet Central Asia to date, however, is based on the thick description and cogent analysis of individual cases that have not been sufficiently stitched together to identify commonalities both within and across Central Asian states and societies. itself by demonstrating the increased role of Islam in citizens daily lives and government policies designed to mitigate its social and political influence. We thus possess a rich array of detailed scholarly accounts, and yet lack a comprehensive picture that could form the basis of a cumulative body of knowledge.
This edited volume goes beyond earlier efforts by providing a more complete and aggregate portrayal of Central Asias Islamic revival. First, it is divided into four parts, each of which examines the role that Islam has played in Central Asia since independence from a different perspective: , A View from Outside: International Islam and Central Asia, reconsiders the extent to which increased interaction with and knowledge of the larger Islamic world is shaping both the form and content of Central Asias Islamic revival and state responses. Second, the volume uses these perspectives to develop a set of collective insights, detailed below, that both corroborate and contradict the findings from previous research.
A Transformation, Not a Revival
Consistent with previous research (e.g., Louw 2007; Sahadeo and Zanca 2007), the chapters herein (particularly in increasing public and private manifestations of Islam in Central Asia since independence as merely a revival but rather as a transformation. The former term implies that Islam has reappear[ed] in a cyclical or more or less unchanged form (Davis 1987, 37). This volume clearly demonstrates, however, that what we have witnessed is not simply the reemergence of beliefs and practices that were suppressed under Soviet rule, but rather, their alteration in form, nature, and appearance, as individuals and communities gain direct access to ideas and information concerning both Islam and other religions via a variety of new sources (e.g., social media, Christian missionaries, and activists as well as opportunities to travel and study abroad), encounter an evolving range of state policies toward religion, and come into contact with multiple and sometimes competing sources of religious authority.
Recharacterizing Central Asias Islamic revival as a transformation is not only more accurate but also more consistent with the notion that Islamic beliefs and practices throughout the region should be viewed on a continuum from scriptural/textual to mystical/traditional with most people not located firmly at either end (Tucker 2013). Although these competing discourses have existed in Central Asia for centuries, they manifest themselves in different ways at both the individual and community levels and reflect what appears to be a pluralization of Islam since independence (Khalid 2007, 123). Based on an original mass survey conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 201112, for example, Rouslan Jalil () emphasizes the domestic origins of fundamentalist beliefs and practices associated with radical political Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia. In contrast to these earlier studies, however, she argues that the Islamist groups that promote such beliefs and practicesnamely, Mujaddidiya and Hizb-ut-Tahrirare not interested in politics at all, but rather, in spiritual change within their communities. Exnerovas research also demonstrates that the desire to purify Islam in Central Asia has local origins rooted in a highly localized Islamic education that proliferated under Soviet rule.
Distinct State Policies
The plurality of beliefs and practices that characterize Islam in Central Asia, of course, do not exist in a political vacuum. Accordingly, the chapters in ) contends that the official rehabilitation of Sufism in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan from a source of Islamic extremism under tsarist and Soviet rule to a source of moderation was spurred by the regimes need in each country for allies to support their increasingly authoritarian rule. Both chapters thus illuminate how declining legitimacy in the wake of increasing religious expression compelled Central Asian regimes governing predominantly Muslim populations to reject the Soviet brand of secularism they inherited and manufacture their own.
These insights counter the common view that the state approach toward Islam in Central Asia is essentially a continuation of Soviet religious policy. Perhaps even more important, they suggest the need to reconsider both the substance of Soviet policy and its impact. In the concluding chapter in this section, therefore, Eren Murat Tasar ( degree to which the Soviet state successfully controlled Islamic belief and practice by examining the persistence of unregistered Muslim religious leaders despite the strict registration requirements that Stalin imposed in the early 1940s. He argues convincingly that, although this outcome was ideologically unacceptable and a source of consternation and worry for the leadership, like other gray spaces such as the underground economy, it was unavoidable given the Soviet states emphasis on the rule of law over repression after the Second World War.
Multiple and Competing Sources of Religious Authority
Among the most important factors influencing the design and implementation of state policies toward Islam in Central Asia are the role of religious leaders and their relationship with state officials at both the local and national levels. And yet, this aspect has been relatively understudied. of this edited volume is thus devoted to identifying the multiple claimants to religious authority, and how they interact with local communities, state officials, and one another.
Noor ONeill Borbieva () emphasizes the failure of Tajikistans government to limit the role and influence of a variety of nonstate religious specialists, who rely on a combination of historic genealogical lineagein particular, descent from a Sufi orderand modern economic success as their source of authority. Such figures use this authority not only to cultivate a national following, bolstered by the growing need for spiritual advice that can be easily transmitted via the Internet and other media, but also to routinely ignore the directives of state-trained and -appointed religious specialists.
