E. Ten
Kyrgyzstan

THE ROLE OF ISLAM IN THE POST-SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA

    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.