Islamic Religious Identity in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan

Authors

  • Jibrail Bin Yusuf Department of Religion and Human Values, Faculty of Arts, College of Humanities and Legal Studies University of Cape Coast Cape Coast
  • Aikol Boletbekova Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddein Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
  • Jabal Muhammad Buaben Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddein Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam
  • Hassan Shakeel Shah Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore
  • Muhammad Ayaz Department of Banking and Finance, Hasan Murad School of Management (HSM), University of Management and Technology, Lahore

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15575/ijik.v13i2.25504

Keywords:

Islam, Kyrgyzstan, Soviet Union, Ideological differences, Tengrism.

Abstract

This paper assesses the state of Islam in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. It examines the challenges Islam faces due to the diversity of ideologies bequeathed by the Soviet Union. Although Islam emerged as a dominant religious belief in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, due to the internal elements of secularism, Tengrism, and other indigenous ideologies, and the interpretation of Islamic lore coupled with the Soviet ideology of atheism, Islam remains syncretic with some loose extremism fuelled by home-grown socio-political factors and imported fundamentalism. It, therefore, concludes that the challenge to Islam and Islamic religious identity in contemporary Kyrgyzstan is a sort of ‘Muslimo-phobia’ rather than ‘Islamo-phobia’ because the challenge to Islam is clearly unleashed by the Muslims themselves and not the minority non-Muslim population.

Author Biographies

Jibrail Bin Yusuf, Department of Religion and Human Values, Faculty of Arts, College of Humanities and Legal Studies University of Cape Coast Cape Coast

Jibrail Bin Yusuf holds PhD in Islamic Civilization and Contemporary Issues. He is a religious historian and ethicist. His main field of interest is Islamic Studies and has published on various aspects of Islam, including: Islamic history in Africa (particularly, West Africa), Islam on the contemporary scene; Muslim minority affairs, jurisprudence (Fiqh) focusing on contemporary Muslim ethics in dialogue with secular ethics, Shari’ah, Hadith, Qur’an, gender and development issues in Islam, Muslim leadership, politics, and governance. One of his latest publications include two chapters that featured in The Asante World, a book published by Routledge. He is a faculty member of the Department of Religion and Human Values, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africa, currently serving as a Senior Lecturer. Trained in both Western and Eastern languages, including the English and the Arabic languages, and with over fifteen years of university teaching and research, he serves as a reviewer for many top-tier journals across the world in the field of Islamic Studies. Geographically, he is well informed about the history of Islam in Africa, Arabia, the Malay World, and Central Asia. He has also authored papers on Islamic economics, banking and finance and Islamic business ethics in general as well as Islamic education and philosophy. 

Aikol Boletbekova, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddein Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Aikol Boletbekova holds MA in Islamic Civilization and Contemporary Issues. Her research interest is in the field of Islamic Studies. She is a native of Kyrgystan with working knowledge of the Kyrgyz language and a bit of the Russian language. As a person with a background in journalism, she is also interested in Islamic Da’wah, particularly, the use of the mass media in religious propagation in Kyrgystan. 

Jabal Muhammad Buaben, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddein Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Jabal Muhammad Buaben holds PhD from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. His field of interest include Islamic Studies, especially the Sirah and Islamic Da‘wah, religion and science, interfaith/intercultural dialogue, and African Traditional Religious thought. He has thought in various universities including the International Islamic University in Malaysia. He joined the University of Birmingham in 1996 where he served as the Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations for four years. As at 2012, he had successfully supervised 24 Doctoral theses in Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Birmingham alone.  He also taught at the Sultan Omar Ali Institute for Islamic Studies (SOASCIS) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, from 2012 to 2018. He also served as the Programme Leader of the postgraduate programmes. He is an editor for the Islamic Journal, Hamdard Islamicus, an examiner for the Cambridge University International Examinations [CIE], a job he has been involved in since the 1980s. He has delivered several lectures on Islam in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Seychelles, Indonesia, Philippines and South Africa and attended and presented several papers at International Conferences/Seminars on Islam, Interfaith/ Intercultural dialogue and Religion and Science. He is current working on two projects of which is sponsored by the Sanneh Institute at University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.

Hassan Shakeel Shah, Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore

Hassan Shakeel Shah is currently an Associate Professor and the Chairperson of the Department of Islamic Thought and Civilization, School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore, Pakistan. Prior to this appointment, he was the Associate Director of the Institute of Islamic Banking of the same university. Before joining UMT, he was the Head of the Islamic Banking and Finance Department of the Islamic University of Maldives, Maldives. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Al-Azhar University, Egypt, Master's Degree from Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University, Brunei, and PhD from Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei. He has been researching on Sharīʿah, Islamic Banking and Finance, and the Arabic Language throughout his academic career. He has participated in and presented papers at several conferences and seminars and has published a number of research papers in peer reviewed journals. He has also served as convener of many conferences.

Muhammad Ayaz, Department of Banking and Finance, Hasan Murad School of Management (HSM), University of Management and Technology, Lahore

Mohammad Ayaz holds PhD in Islamic Banking and Finance and is currently serving as an Associate Professor at the Department of Banking and Finance of the Hasan Murad School of Management (HSM), University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. His research interest is in Shari’ah governance and Islamic microfinance. He has more than 15 years of teaching, research and other professional experiences. He has been supervising PhD and MS students and has published many research papers in reputable research journals. His research covers many areas related to Islamic finance including: Shari’ah governance, corporate governance, Islamic microfinance, takaful and maqasid al-shari’ah based performance of Islamic financial institutions.

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Published

2023-05-19

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2023): IJIK

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