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Uzbekistan
Islam in the Soviet Era
Soviet authorities did not prohibit the practice of Islam as
much as they sought to coopt and utilize religion to placate a
population that often was unaware of the tenets of its faith.
After its introduction in the seventh century, Islam in many ways
formed the basis of life in Uzbekistan. The Soviet government
encouraged continuation of the role played by Islam in secular
society. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had sixty-five registered
mosques and as many as 3,000 active mullahs and other Muslim clerics.
For almost forty years, the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the
official, Soviet-approved governing agency of the Muslim faith
in the region, was based in Tashkent. The grand mufti who headed
the board met with hundreds of foreign delegations each year in
his official capacity, and the board published a journal on Islamic
issues, Muslims of the Soviet East .
However, the Muslims working or participating in any of these
organizations were carefully screened for political reliability.
Furthermore, as the Uzbekistani government ostensibly was promoting
Islam with the one hand, it was working hard to eradicate it with
the other. The government sponsored official antireligious campaigns
and severe crackdowns on any hint of an Islamic movement or network
outside of the control of the state.
Moscow's efforts to eradicate and coopt Islam not only sharpened
differences between Muslims and others. They also greatly distorted
the understanding of Islam among Uzbekistan's population and created
competing Islamic ideologies among the Central Asians themselves.
Data as of March 1996
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