Central Asia: Islam and the State
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CENTRAL ASIA: ISLAM AND THE STATE 10 July 2003 ICG Asia Report N°59 Osh/Brussels TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................ i I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 II. UZBEKISTAN: REPRESSION AND RESPONSE .....................................................4 A. CONTEMPORARY ISLAM ....................................................................................................... 4 B. GOVERNMENT ATTITUDES .................................................................................................... 5 C. CONTROLLING ISLAM ........................................................................................................... 5 1. Legal restrictions....................................................................................................... 5 2. Government policy.................................................................................................... 6 3. The official Islamic establishment ............................................................................ 7 4. Control of religious education................................................................................... 8 5. State repression ....................................................................................................... 10 D. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 12 III. TAJIKISTAN: THE ISLAMIST COMPROMISE....................................................13 A. GOVERNMENT ATTITUDES .................................................................................................. 13 B. SYSTEM OF CONTROL ......................................................................................................... 14 1. Legal restrictions..................................................................................................... 14 2. State control: the registration issue ......................................................................... 15 3. Religious structures................................................................................................. 16 4. Repression and the security forces.......................................................................... 17 5. Control of education................................................................................................ 17 6. Social and symbolic issues...................................................................................... 18 7. Restrictions on social/charitable activity ................................................................ 20 C. THE ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE PARTY.................................................................................... 20 D. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 21 IV. KYRGYZSTAN: A NATION DIVIDED? ..................................................................22 A. GOVERNMENT POLICY........................................................................................................ 24 1. Legal restrictions..................................................................................................... 24 2. State structures........................................................................................................ 25 3. Repression/security forces ...................................................................................... 26 B. THE RELIGIOUS HIERARCHY................................................................................................ 26 C. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION...................................................................................................... 28 D. SOCIAL ISSUES ................................................................................................................... 30 E. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 30 V. KAZAKHSTAN.............................................................................................................31 A. GOVERNMENT POLICY........................................................................................................ 31 1. State bodies ............................................................................................................. 32 2. Religious bodies...................................................................................................... 32 3. Religious education................................................................................................. 32 4. Repression and the security forces.......................................................................... 33 B. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 34 VI. TURKMENISTAN ........................................................................................................34 A. RELIGION AND THE CULT OF PERSONALITY........................................................................ 34 1. Laws on religious belief.......................................................................................... 35 2. Official structures.................................................................................................... 35 3. Repression............................................................................................................... 35 4. Religious education................................................................................................. 35 B. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 36 VII. THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY......................................36 VIII. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................37 APPENDICES A. MAP OF CENTRAL ASIA ..................................................................................................... 39 B. ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP ...................................................................... 40 C. ICG REPORTS AND BRIEFING PAPERS................................................................................ 41 D. ICG BOARD MEMBERS ...................................................................................................... 47 ICG Asia Report N°59 10 July 2003 CENTRAL ASIA: ISLAM AND THE STATE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS To avoid future instability, Central Asian states the overthrow of all secular states in the region in need to re-examine their policies towards Islam and favour of a single Islamic Caliphate, although it step back from reliance on repression. Seventy claims to be committed to non-violence. years of Soviet rule in Central Asia did not crush Islam but it had a profound effect in secularising In Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan there has been much society and political elites. Nevertheless, after less interest in ideologies that challenge secularism. independence there was a surge of interest in Islam, But non-traditional Muslim tendencies have including the emergence of political Islamist appeared in both, and there is debate over the role groups seeking to challenge the secular nature of of religion in society and in politics and over the these new states. The heavy-handed repression of limits to state interference in religion. In southern early manifestations of political Islam led to Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan, the growth in confrontation, violence, and the appearance of influence of groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir has extremist and terrorist groups. sometimes been exaggerated, but they do have a committed following. In Uzbekistan the first manifestations of Islamism were rapidly suppressed, and an all-out campaign In Turkmenistan Islam has only weak roots as an against any Muslim political activity was initiated. organised religion but President Niyazov has Many Islamists fled first to Tajikistan and then to combined widespread repression of any independent Afghanistan, where they formed the Islamic religious activity with attempts to create a pseudo- Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an ally of the Islamic spiritual creed centred on his own personality. Taliban. High levels of repression continued inside the country, provoking widespread discontent and Central Asian governments have often resorted to fuelling political Islam as a focus for opposition. old Soviet methods of control. In Uzbekistan this There are at least 6,000 religious prisoners in 2003 has been repressive in the extreme; in Kyrgyzstan but dissatisfaction with the regime continues to much more subtle. All five regional governments, feed into Islamist sentiment. however, have two aims: first, to control any appearance of political Islam, whether moderate or In Tajikistan tension over the role of Islam in state- extreme, since they consider independent building was a contributory factor to the outbreak of expressions of Islam a threat to the constitutional civil war in 1992. The Islamic Renaissance Party order; secondly, to use Islam as a conduit to (IRP) led opposition to the former Communist regime promote their own ideologies and campaigns, and but failure on both sides to compromise produced in general as a tool of the state. bitter fighting that continued until a peace accord was reached