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Uzbekistan
Mainstream Islam in the 1990s
For the most part, however, in the first years of independence
Uzbekistan is seeing a resurgence of a more secular Islam, and
even that movement is in its very early stages. According to a
public opinion survey conducted in 1994, interest in Islam is
growing rapidly, but personal understanding of Islam by Uzbeks
remains limited or distorted. For example, about half of ethnic
Uzbek respondents professed belief in Islam when asked to identify
their religious faith. Among that number, however, knowledge or
practice of the main precepts of Islam was weak. Despite a reported
spread of Islam among Uzbekistan's younger population, the survey
suggested that Islamic belief is still weakest among the younger
generations. Few respondents showed interest in a form of Islam
that would participate actively in political issues. Thus, the
first years of post-Soviet religious freedom seem to have fostered
a form of Islam related to the Uzbek population more in traditional
and cultural terms than in religious ones, weakening Karimov's
claims that a growing widespread fundamentalism poses a threat
to Uzbekistan's survival. Available information suggests that
Islam itself would probably not be the root cause of a conflict
as much as it would be a vehicle for expressing other grievances
that are far more immediate causes of dissension and despair.
Experts do not minimize the importance of Islam, however. The
practice of the Islamic faith is growing in Uzbekistan, and the
politicization of Islam could become a real threat in the future.
Data as of March 1996
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