TABLIGHI JAMAAT IN KYRGYZSTAN: ITS LOCAL SPECIFICS AND POSSIBLE IMPACT ON THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION
Abstract
Early in the 1990s, men who stood out in the crowd because of their beards and Pakistani clothing flocked to the newly independent country. They were members of Tablighi Jamaat, a religious movement which called on the faithful to pattern their lives on the rules and customs of the Prophet Muhammad. Its high level of activity soon turned it into the largest of the Islamic organizations and groups (both local and foreign) operating in Kyrgyzstan. At first, the newcomers concentrated their efforts on the country’s north, which is much less religious than the south.1 But after a while, the movement spread to the south to cover the republic’s entire territory. The first missionaries (who did not know any of the local languages and spoke English and Arabic) came from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India2; they had to rely on local interpreters to explain the foundations of Islam to the people.
The Pakistani missionaries believe the Kyrgyz Republic to be the most fertile soil for tilling by foreign preachers; it is expected to serve as a springboard from which Islam, and its extremist trends, can be launched further across the region.3 Over 50 citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic are now educated in the Islamic regional educational establishments of Pakistan,4 although this figure is hardly correct. There is any number of those who travel on tourist visas and private invitations without informing the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) and state structures to receive religious education abroad. Tablighi Jamaat stepped up its involvement in the republic’s religious life with the help of those who returned to till the local soil after graduating from religious centers in Pakistan and India. Kyrgyz students prefer the Tablighi Jamaat madrasahs in Lahore and Rayvin'd where they study Muslim theology and, not infrequently, bring back many religious convictions and teachings which contradict not only the local mentality, but also the Hanafi madhhab the Kyrgyz inherited from their ancestors. In a very short time, the ranks of missionaries swelled with local people speaking Kyrgyz and Russian; some of them studied abroad, others had no formal education.
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References
See: I. Rotar, “Stranniki v nochi. Pakistanskiy islam v Tsentral’noy Azii: missionerstvo ili podryvnaia deiatel’nost?” NG-Religii, 20 February, 2008, available at [http://religion.ng.ru/problems/2008-02-20/6_stranniki.html].
See: Interview with R. Eratov, head of the Daavat Department, Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan, 15 June, 2009.
See: N. Samartseva, “Shirma dlia ekstremistov, ili Chto skryvaetsia za blagimi tseliami ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ po ozdorovleniiu musul’manskogo obshchestva,” ResPublika,18 June, 2006.
See: O. Mamaiusupov, K. Murzakhalilov, K. Mama-taliev, Kratkiy analiz religioznykh sistem v Kyrgyzstane,Bishkek, 2006, 172 pp.
See: K. Malikov, “Ne iskliuchaiu, chto vo vlastnykh strukturakh Kyrgyzstana est destruktivnye elementy, kotorym vygodno raskachivanie religioznoy lodki,” Bishkek—24.kg Information Agency, 14 March, 2009, available at [www.24.kg/Community/ 2009/03/14/109065.htm].
See: I. Rotar, op. cit.
S. Kim, “Lokomotivom dvizhenia ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ iavliaetsia molodezh Kyrgyzstana,” Bishkek—24.kg IA, 3 April,2009, available at [http://www.24.kg/community/2009/04/03/110935.html].
See: K. Murzakhalilov, “Islam v Kyrgyzstane: stanovlenie i perspektivy razvitia,” in Materaily kruglogo stola “Sekularizm i islam v sovremennom gosudarstve: chto ikh ob’ediniaet?” Almaty, 2008, pp. 179-199.
See: “Daavat—prisyv k islamu. Stanet li on protivodeystviem religiouznomu ekstremizmu?” Institut strategichesko-go analyza i prognoza KRSU, available at [http://www.easttime.ru/analitic/ 1/1/ 78. html].
On 7 May, 2009, the Supreme Court of Russia adjudicated Tablighi Jamaat as an extremist organization and banned it as threatening national and confessional stability of the Russian Federation and its territorial integrity. On 30 July, 2009,the cassation appeal of the Tablighi Jamaat regarding violation of its right to freedom of expression, conscience and asso-ciation was denied and the court decision came into force.
See: “Verkhovny sud Rossii zapretil islamskoe dvizhenie ‘Tablighi Jamaat’,” NG-Religii, 20 May, 2009.
See: “Genprokuratura prosit priznat organizatsiu daavatistov ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ terroristicheskoy i ekstremistskoy,”Bishkek—AKIpress Information Agency, 3 February, 2009 [http:// www. svodka. akipress.org/news:4531/].
See: K. Murzakhalilov, K. Mamataliev, “Kyrgyz Republic—Religion,” in: Central Eurasia 2005. Analytical An-nual, CA&CC Press, Sweden, 2006.
O. Mamaiusupov, Voprosy (problemy) religii na perekhodnom etape, Bishkek, 2003, 353 pp.
See: K. Murzakhalilov, K. Mamataliev, O. Mamaiusupov, “Islam in the Democratic Context of Kyrgyzstan: Com-parative Analysis,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 3 (33), 2005.
See: A. Lymar, “Kyrgyzstan stal ploshchadkoy, na kotoroy stolknulis interesy raznykh stran, blokov i ideologiy,” Bishkek—24.kg IA, 30 September, 2009, available at [http://www.24.kg/community /62083-abdykadyr-orusbaev-pochemu-by-v kyrgyzstane.html].
I. Gorbachev, “Bes fanatizma,” Bishkek—24.kg IA, 11 October, 2008, available at [http://www.24.kg /community/008/ 10/11/ 95023.html].
See: A. Lymar, op. cit.
See: Iu. Gruzdov, “Sovobodna li sovest, staviashchaia pod ugrozu natsbezopasnost?” Obshchestvenno-politicheskaia gazeta MSN, 13 March, 2009.
See: B. Kolbaev, “V Kyrgyzstane dlia stabilizatsii obstanovki neobkhodimo privlekat religioznykh liderov,”Bishkek—24.kg IA, 20 April, 2010, available at [http://www.24.kg/community/51755-2009/06/11/114819].
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