The rise of the Jama'at al Tabligh in Kyrgyzstan: the revival of Islamic ties between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia?

After two centuries of close relationships, especially under the Mughals, Islamic ties between India and Central Asia have been considerably weakened, first after the Tsarist colonization and then by Soviet religious repression and ideological isolation. However, when Central Asian post-Soviet republics became independent in 1991, they renewed all kinds of links with the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, the revival of Central Asian Islam benefited from inspirational international Islamic sources from Turkey, the Arab countries and India. The latter drew less attention from analysts than other sources of influence, although it has gained ground all over the region in past years, particularly in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where the India-based Jama'at al Tabligh has achieved significant success. This Islamic organization, established in British India in the 1920s, defines itself as a non-radical and non-political movement, promoting ‘basic’ Islamic faith and practice. So far, the Jama'at al Tabligh has been tolerated by local authorities who would rather use them as a shield against the more radical Islamic groups that are openly opposing the regime.     

The Central Asian muftiate in occupied Afghanistan, 1979–87

Known by the Russian acronym SADUM, the muftiate responsible for overseeing mosques in the five Soviet Central Asian republics conducted pro-Soviet public diplomacy in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan after the invasion of December 1979. SADUM's engagement with pro-Soviet ulama in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan marks a departure from the character of its extensive propaganda and relationship-building activities elsewhere in the Muslim and developing worlds. The Central Asian Islamic scholars staffing SADUM sought to assist the Soviet Party-state in establishing and consolidating a cadre of Afghan ulama who could achieve legitimacy in the eyes of Afghanistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population while maintaining political support for the Communist-oriented People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.     

论郑和与东南亚的伊斯兰教

郑和出身于穆斯林世家,他在国内从事多种伊斯兰教活动。关于郑和在海外传播伊斯兰教一事,中国史籍上没有涉及,但海外却有不少这方面的记载和传说。本文联系当时东南亚的社会背景介绍了海外有关记载,并分析了长期以来中外学者关于郑和在海外传播伊斯兰教的研究很少的原因。作者认为,七下西洋期间,郑和在完成明廷使命之余,在海外传播伊斯兰教是完全可能的。海外有关的记载和传说,固然尚待进一步考证,但毕竟为我们提供了十分宝贵的线索, 有助于我们了解郑和下西洋的全面情况,尤其是他在15世纪东南亚伊斯兰教发展过程中的作用。如事实确凿,这也是中国与东南亚文化交流的组成部分。     

Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’: Central Asian students at the Russian Islamic University in Tatarstan

ABSTRACT

Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official religious institutions to control the Muslim population by creating and promoting a state-approved version of ‘traditional Islam’ and producing official religious specialists. For the young Muslim students, however, Islamic education provides, in addition to religious knowledge, access to networks, social security and new economic opportunities. It thereby offers a way to cope with the uncertainty caused by high unemployment rates and other socio-economic difficulties among young people.     

Ahmadis or Indonesians? The polarization of post-reform public debates on Islam and orthodoxy

Since the fall of Suharto in 1998, Indonesian public discourse about “mainstream” Muslim identity and practice has polarized sharply into various factions. This article offers a detailed analysis of a subset of this discourse that focuses on the Ahmadiyya in order to grasp how the new normative contours of Islam are being shaped in Indonesia. I make three arguments: First, the discourse is homogenizing what was once a wide spectrum of identitarian positions, and that consequently, Islamic diversity in Indonesia is shrinking. Second, the various internally homogenized sets of arguments for and against the Ahmadiyya mis-engage with each other in a way that produces social fragmentation and further polarization. Third, these arguments produce exclusionary mechanisms that reinforce each other. Both the opponents of the Ahmadiyya and their defenders exclude Ahmadis from conceptions of an Indonesian “majority.” This dynamic in Indonesian public discourse has resulted in the acceleration of the marginalization of the Ahmadiyya within an increasingly fragmented Indonesian society.     

Making the ‘empowered woman’: exploring contradictions in gender and development programming in Kyrgyzstan

This article examines the complexities of women’s increasing participation in international development programming for gender equality. Taking a specific setting in rural Kyrgyzstan where one such project has been operating, the researchers discover adverse effects on the local women’s livelihoods, status and health. Women’s contradictions are attributed to the women’s own failures and lacks, creating confusion and frustration among them. Adopting Smith’s institutional-ethnography approach, we explicate and map out the hidden processes which must be held accountable for these reactionary outcomes, taking women’s experiences as entry points to inquiry. We find that the reactionary effects are not accidental but organized, powerfully, systematically but invisibly, by taken-for-granted institutional practices serving the purposes of global development institutions, where women are seen as instruments of global economic growth. The analysis provokes critical discussion of ‘how’ and ‘what’ it takes to transform Central Asian women into ‘empowered’ people.     

伊斯兰教与东南亚国家现代化关系刍议

东南亚是世界穆斯林人口最多的地区之一,伊斯兰教对穆斯林占人口多数的印尼、马来西亚和文莱的现代化进程产生深刻影响,也对穆斯林人口占少数的新加坡、泰国和菲律宾现代化进程产生一定影响.本文认为由于伊斯兰国家的政治制度、经济发展水平、教育程度、社会结构、国际环境不同,伊斯兰与现代化的关系是多样的,不仅中东和东南亚地区伊斯兰与现代化的关系有较大不同,而且东南亚国家间亦有较大差别,表现出伊斯兰与现代化关系的多样性.     

东北亚油气合作的现实选择:来自中国在中亚的成功经验

东北亚和中亚地区凭借丰富的油气资源,在世界能源版图中的地位日渐上升。近年来,中亚地区油气合作发展迅速,但是在资源总量上更具优势的东北亚油气合作之路却充满曲折。在地区性统一能源市场形成之前,政府间多边协调机制仍然是东北亚油气合作的现实选择。中国在互利双赢的理念指导下,以良好的政治互信为基础,以油气运输管线为纽带,通过以双边合作为主、双边合作带动多边合作的方式,循序渐进地稳步推进了与中亚国家的油气合作。因此,中国在推动地区油气合作方面积累了一定的成功经验,提高了驾驭复杂局面的能力,理应在推进东北亚油气合作方面发挥更积极的作用。     

The politics and economics of “retraditionalization” in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

This paper analyzes attitudes of women enrolled in secular and religious universities in the capital cities of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan toward family life and the role of Islam in the private and public sphere. Survey data indicate that women from both types of universities in both countries sympathize with retraditionalization, or “a return to traditional values, family life, and religion, which entails, in part, women being moved out of the work force.” Thus far, there is no statistical evidence of this phenomenon in the literature. Sympathy for retraditionalization is unfolding in the context of ongoing economic uncertainty that has plagued Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan since the Soviet Union's collapse, and its manifestations produce political responses. I argue that Kyrgyz and Tajik elites push a particular gender norm implying female secularization to counter expressions of retraditionalization among young women. In conclusion, I highlight counterintuitive findings of the survey regarding Islam's role in Central Asian society and discuss collective versus individual acts of resistance to female secularization policies in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.     

UNPACKING THE BLASPHEMY LAWS OF PAKISTAN

Over the years, Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws have been a central instrument for the persecution of religious minorities. While these laws are colonial in origin, they exist today within the context of a general Islamisation of laws, which combined with the state's inability to hold a monopoly over violence have contributed to growing anarchy in the country. This paper traces the evolution of Pakistan's religious nationalism, presents debates around the blasphemy laws and their implementation, and considers the possibilities for reform.     

Performing statehood: Afghanistan as an arena for Central Asian states

Afghanistan is often mentioned as a threat to the Central Asian states. Potential spillovers of violence, extremism, terrorism and dangers related to the drug trade are seen as significant security issues for the region. This article takes a different approach. Taking a performative view of statehood, we see state identities as socially constituted, partly by involvement in regional and global processes. From research on border management, the Northern Distribution Network, and various forms of bilateral cooperation between Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, we argue that Afghanistan has become an arena where the Central Asian states can participate. How the Central Asian states bordering on Afghanistan are treated as relevant participants, regardless of actual state capacity or the effectiveness of their policies, serves to constitute and confirm their sovereignty and relevance to the international community, and ultimately their statehood. By emphasizing the important state effects of their performance, our perspective differs from accounts of Central Asian states as either ‘weak’ or ‘strong’, and the tendency to depict Central Asian engagement in regional initiatives as mere window-dressing.