Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of Iran and Saudi Arabia, Sufism is in a quiet way dominant in Central
Asia. Most shrines you'll see are devoted to one Sufi teacher or another.
When Islam was threatened by invaders (eg the Crusaders), Sufis
assumed the role of defenders of the faith, and Sufism became a mass
movement of regimented tariqas (brotherhoods), based around certain
holy places, often the tombs of the brotherhood's founders. Clandestine,
anticommunist tariqas helped Islam weather the Soviet period, and the
KGB and its predecessors never seemed able to infiltrate them.
The moderate, non-elitist Naqshbandiya tariqa was the most impor-
tant in Soviet times, and probably still is. Founded in Bukhara in the 14th
century, much of its influence in Central Asia perhaps comes from the
high profile of Naqshbandi fighters in two centuries of revolts against
the Russians in the Caucasus. A number of well-known 1930s
basmachi
(Muslim guerrilla fighters) leaders were Naqshbandiya.
Another important Sufi sect in Central Asia is the Qadiriya, founded
by a teacher from the Caspian region. Others are the Kubra (founded
in Khorezm) and Yasauia (founded in the town of Turkistan in Kaza-
khstan). All these were founded in the 12th century.
Islam Today
Since independence, Central Asia has seen a resurgence of Islam, and
mosques and medressas have sprouted like mushrooms across the re-
gion, often financed with Saudi or Iranian money. Even in more reli-
giously conservative Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, these new mosques are
as much political as religious statements, and the rise of Islam has as
much to do with the search for a Central Asian identity as it does with a
rise in religious fervour.
Most Central Asians are torn between the Soviet secularism of the
recent past and the region's deeper historical ties to the Muslim world,
but few have a very deep knowledge of Islam. Only the Fergana Valley re-
gions of Uzbekistan and southern Kyrgyzstan can be considered strongly
Muslim, and only here do women commonly wear the hijab (headscarf).
All the Central Asian governments have taken great care to keep strict
tabs on Islam. Only state-approved imams (preacher or religious leader)
and state-registered mosques are allowed to operate in most republics.
Tajikistan's Islamic Revival Party is the only Islamist party in the region
not to be outlawed.
Central Asia has experienced a taste of Islamic extremism, in the form
of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which launched a series
of armed raids and kidnappings in 1999 to 2001 in an attempt to estab-
lish an Islamic state in Uzbekistan. The movement has largely disap-
peared inside Central Asia, but there are fears that extremists may return
to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan if they regain a base in Afghanistan.
Under the cloak of the 'war on terror', the Uzbek government has
arrested thousands of Muslims as 'extremists', most of them from the
Fergana Valley. Some, but not all, are members of the peaceful but radi-
cal organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Movement of Liberation), which hopes
to establish a global Islamic caliphate and has support across the region.
Turkmenistan also keeps tight controls on Islam. Turkmen mosques
have quotations from former President Niyazov's book the
Ruhnama
engraved next to quotations from the Quran. The former chief cleric of
Turkmenistan was charged with treason and sentenced to 22 years in
prison after refusing to accept the Turkmen president as a messenger
of God.
With the old communist ideals discredited, democracy suppressed
and economic options stagnating, the fear is that radical Islam will
provide an alluring alternative for a Central Asian youth left with few
remaining options.
Central Asia's
most important
Sufi shrines are
the Bakhautdin
naqshband
Mausoleum in
Bukhara and the
Yasaui Mauso-
leum at Turkestan
in Kazakhstan.
Jihad: The Rise
of Militant Islam
in Central Asia
by
Ahmed rashid
(2002) is an
overview of how
and why Islamic
militant groups
rose in the Fer-
gana Valley from
the ashes of the
Soviet Union.
The oldest surviv-
ing Quran, the
Osman Quran, is
kept in Tashkent.
It was written
just 19 years
after the death
of the Prophet
Mohammed and
was later brought
to Central Asia by
Timur
(Tamerlane).
