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Thesis Title: Understanding Ideologies of “Radical” Islamic Movements in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan

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Thesis Title: Understanding Ideologies of “Radical” Islamic Movements in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan Centre for Peace Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education Thesis title: Understanding ideologies of “radical” Islamic movements in contemporary Kyrgyzstan Name of author: Meerim Aitkulova Master’s thesis in Peace and Conflict Transformation – SVF 3901 - May 2016 ii ABSTARCT This thesis examines violence potential of such Islamic movements like Tablighi Jamaat, Salafi and Hizb ut-Tahrir based on the study of the connection between religion and violence in their ideologies. In order to understand this connection, the study focuses on 17 qualitative interviews with the members of the above-mentioned movements as well as with the experts representing different areas. The thesis presents a background of the religious situation in the country, by drawing attention to the historical process of Islamization in Kyrgyzstan and peculiarities of the religious situation existing today. General characteristics of the movements under study are discussed as well. The conceptual framework used several key concepts like jihad, peace and peacebuilding in Islam, fundamentalism and arguments developed within the field of Critical Terrorism Studies. The findings that emerge from the study indicate that generally members of the chosen Islamic movements, despite differences in their memberships, share an opinion that violence is not normal to Islam and that their ideologies mainly support a peaceful resolution of conflicts. Analysis of the experts’ data reflects a division among them over the question of violence potential of the mentioned movements. For some experts popular narrative about the radicalization of Muslims is an exaggeration, for other experts, the conflicting nature is inherent to these movements. However, findings indicate that experts concurred that the risk of religious violence in Kyrgyzstan cannot be excluded, due to the number of external and internal factors both of religious and of non-religious in nature. The study brings evidence to the on-going debates about a threat of radicalization of Muslims that at least in the ideologies of the movements there are strict regulations concerning the use of violence, which is usually committed in the case of self-defense. Yet in a secular understanding, a number of religious requirements followed by these movements, such as, claims that Islam is the only true way for the humanity, strict observance of religious practices can be considered as “radical” or “fundamentalist” but they generally exclude a component of violence, at least unjustified one. Key words: Islamization, radicalization, fundamentalism, jihad, Kyrgyzstan, Tablighi Jamaat, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Salafi movement, Islamic movements, peace, violence. iii iv Acknowledgments I owe a great sense of gratitude to my supervisor James R. Lewis who introduced me to the fascinating world of religions and sects and inspired me to explore the present topic. His profound academic proficiency and outstanding personal qualities contributed to the fruitful cooperation and without his encouragement, insightful suggestions and fatherly caring of his students this work would not have been possible. I am no less thankful to all my informants, whose opinions and experiences enabled me to lift a veil of the world that evokes so much controversy. v Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1Challenges of Islamization ........................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Problem statement ....................................................................................................................... 3 1.3Research questions ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Finding my thesis ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2. Background of Islam in Kyrgyzstan and “radical” Islamic movements ....................... 7 2.1 History of Islam in Kyrgyzstan .................................................................................................. 7 2.1.1 Islam in the pre-Soviet period ............................................................................................. 7 2.1.2 Islam during the Soviet period. ........................................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Islam in the post-Soviet period. ......................................................................................... 10 2.2 Radicalization of Muslims ....................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 “Discourse on danger” ....................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 What is radicalization? ...................................................................................................... 13 2.2.3 Clash of ideologies .............................................................................................................. 14 2.3 “Radical” Islamic Movements in Kyrgyzstan ......................................................................... 15 2.3.1Tablighi Jamaat ................................................................................................................... 15 2.3.2 Salafi movement ................................................................................................................. 16 2.3.3 Hizb ut-Tahrir .................................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3. Methodological framework ............................................................................................. 20 3.1 Study areas ................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 Informants .................................................................................................................................. 21 3.2.1 Defining key informants .................................................................................................... 21 3.2.2 Number of informants ........................................................................................................ 22 3.2.3 Gaining access to informants ............................................................................................. 23 3.2.4 Anonymity of informants ................................................................................................... 25 3.3 Data collection method .............................................................................................................. 26 3.3.1 Qualitative interview as a method of data collection ....................................................... 26 3.3.2 Conducting interviews ....................................................................................................... 27 3.4 Self-reflection in relation to Insider and Outsider positions ................................................. 28 3.4.1 My role as a researcher ...................................................................................................... 32 3.4.2 Language ............................................................................................................................. 33 3.4.3 Cross-gender interviewing ................................................................................................. 34 3.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 4. Conceptual framework .................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Jihad ........................................................................................................................................... 38 4.1.1 Jihad as a warfare .............................................................................................................. 38 4.1.2 Jihad as a non-warfare ....................................................................................................... 40 4.2 The concepts of peace and peacebuilding in Islam ................................................................. 41 4.3 Fundamentalism ........................................................................................................................ 43 4.3.1 Violent fundamentalism ..................................................................................................... 44 4.3.2 Non-violent fundamentalism ............................................................................................. 45 4.4 The field of Critical Terrorism Studies about religious violence .......................................... 46 4.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 5. Data presentation and analysis: second group of informants ...................................... 50 5.1 Informant presentation ............................................................................................................. 50 5.1.1 Background of informants ................................................................................................
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