E. Ten
Kyrgyzstan
After seven decades of soviet rule, older people
still remember how Islam was wiped out from the endemic culture of Central Asian people.
Most Islamic traditions, folk cultures were declared illegal and excluded from the
development of nations. Under the Communist regime, Islam in Central Asia was treated, as
an underground believe. Having sought for creating a strong ideology of " homo
sovieticus", the Bolsheviks held different policy towards Central Asian region then
the Russian colonists have done before. Bolshevik activity was also against the
islamization process of the region, because they have imposed their own
"religious" ideology as an invented tradition through the conquests. They were
not particular about treating the local authority, neither in collaborating with them.
Therefore Marxism and scientific atheism were imposed, as a new "religion" on
the peoples of Central Asia by all means of destroying traditional Muslim Society existed
since IX century.
In my essay I am going to discuss the issues concerning the threat of
Islam and its influence on the politics making process in Kyrgyzstan whether the country
is subjected to the Islamic extremism. After seven decades of the Soviet rule, how
important is Islam in Kyrgyzstan? This question seems to me to be a crucial one, because
Islam in Central Asia is a center of 5 former Soviet republics that make up present day
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It turned out that the religion played much more
in the Southern part of Central Asia that is why the religion revival of faith reflects
the historical background. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were less exposed to Islam, because
their nomadic way of life and they were more liberal, even women's role in the society
had place there. An also I would like to research the question of the relationships
between the religion and the Civil Society as the social factors.
However after having got an independence in 1991 after the USSR break
up, the President of the republic strongly encouraged the religious revival in the region,
by the opening of old mosques and the building of new ones. But the efforts to reclaim of
Islam did not coincide with the politics that controls the religion. Also the soviet
prejudices still have place in the political culture of scientific atheism, which
dominates in the States. Therefore Kyrgyzstan is quasi- Islamic country and at the same
time it is a secular one. For the lack of well-established religious platform and Russian
heritage of the society in the region, it makes less dangerous the threat of Islamic
extremism. But there is no guarantee that Islamic extremism and fundamentalism is excluded
once and at all. There are some premises for it.
Central Asian leaders are afraid of the Islamic extremism coming from
Afghanistan, the Batken campaign in 1999, which occurred in the southern border between
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, this made think about it, not only Kyrgyz President. This
problem could grow strong and could be a crucial point in the political life not only in
Kyrgyzstan but also in the whole region. Political Islam is actually a social movement. It
appears in the society with the high rate of marginalization and also the social gap,
where there is no middle classes at all or it is too slaw in its development. The endemic
illiteracy that also has place in the country. And also we should take in to consideration
the economic condition and its period of stagnation, quoting Marx's wards that the
existence identifies the consciousness, so for the lack of economic situation people face
double problem with the true faith. There is certainly the possibility that Islamic
radicalism could grow if the economic conditions deteriorate, repressions intensify and
the authority loses the people's confidence, because in some countries the line between
the government and the society is wiped out ant the notion of Civil Society is in the
embryonic period.