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Kazakstan
Islam and the State
In 1990 Nazarbayev, then party first secretary, created a state
basis for Islam by removing Kazakstan from the authority of the
Muslim Board of Central Asia, the Soviet-approved and politically
oriented religious administration for all of Central Asia. Instead,
Nazarbayev created a separate muftiate, or religious authority,
for Kazak Muslims. However, Nazarbayev's choice of Ratbek hadji
Nysanbayev to be the first Kazak mufti proved an unpopular one.
Accusing him of financial irregularities, religious mispractice,
and collaboration with the Soviet and Kazakstani state security
apparatus, a group of believers from the nationalist Alash political
party attempted unsuccessfully to replace the mufti in December
1991.
With an eye toward the Islamic governments of nearby Iran and
Afghanistan, the writers of the 1993 constitution specifically
forbade religious political parties. The 1995 constitution forbids
organizations that seek to stimulate racial, political, or religious
discord, and imposes strict governmental control on foreign religious
organizations. As did its predecessor, the 1995 constitution stipulates
that Kazakstan is a secular state; thus, Kazakstan is the only
Central Asian state whose constitution does not assign a special
status to Islam. This position was based on the Nazarbayev government's
foreign policy as much as on domestic considerations. Aware of
the potential for investment from the Muslim countries of the
Middle East, Nazarbayev visited Iran, Turkey, and Saudia Arabia;
at the same time, however, he preferred to cast Kazakstan as a
bridge between the Muslim East and the Christian West. For example,
he initially accepted only observer status in the Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO), all of whose member nations are predominantly
Muslim. The president's first trip to the Muslim holy city of
Mecca, which did not occur until 1994, was part of an itinerary
that also included a visit to Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.
By the mid-1990s, Nazarbayev had begun occasionally to refer
to Allah in his speeches, but he had not permitted any of the
Islamic festivals to become public holidays, as they had elsewhere
in Central Asia. However, certain pre-Islamic holidays such as
the spring festival Navruz and the summer festival Kymyzuryndyk
were reintroduced in 1995.
Data as of March 1996
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