Acceso usuarios
Saodat Olimova, Farkhod Tolipov
This article presents an overview on the topic of Islam in Central Asia, assuming that it is possible to identify some common trends for the whole area, but also many particularities that depend on their own historical, social and political background, and that will condition the nature of the state's relations with Islam. Denying the hypothesis that the Islamic revival in the 1980's-1990's in Central Asia was a result of external influence of proselytism, and that it simply landed in the region after the downfall of Communist ideology, the author underlines the existence of a deep-rooted local Islam, moderate in nature and alien to political struggle. Nonetheless, we should not think of a cohesive and homogeneous Islam. On the contrary, it is an Islam that has faced strong debates amongst traditionalists and revolutionaries, as well as the different currents, traditions and schools that compete in Central Asia today to attract the interest of the many believers. Traditionalists are guided by a combination of nationalist and Islamic ideas, and they consider national interests to be more important than global Islamic integration. The projects for reviving the Silk Road, which include the construction of roads, bridges, and also feature plans to construct railways that would connect Central Asian countries with Afghanistan, China, Iran and Pakistan will lead to a major development of contacts with the Near East and South Asia, and will increase transportation, commodity and human flows, stimulating at the same time the exchange of ideas. As a consequence, there is a significant increase in the influence of the international Islamic movement in Central Asian countries that is very welcomed by the governments, who are willing to expand official, business, cultural and inter-personal contacts with other Muslim countries. Nonetheless, this is also a gateway for external influence on Central Asian states that could in some way undermine the power of traditional elites. In response, national governments rely on traditionalists and cultivate local forms of Islam. The civil war in Tajikistan was an extreme manifestation of this conflict within Islam, and in this respect, the country becomes the subject of an in-depth analysis from which we can extract some valuable conclusions about the Islamisation process in Central Asian countries. The article also includes the results of surveys conducted by the author in Tajikistan that help us to gauge important topics such as the leadership among Muslim communities, the extent of radicalisation and how to deal with social and economic problems
