The Instrumentalisation of Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2011
Since independence, the government of President Islam Karimov has instrumentalised Islam as part of its nation-building strategies. Islam has been incorporated within the ideology of National Independence that the government has developed to replace the Marxist Leninism of the Soviet era. Religious expression continues to be closely monitored, and like the governments of many Muslim majority states, the government in Uzbekistan attempts to shape the way Islam is interpreted and expressed by citizens. This chapter extends the previous discussion of the efforts of the Soviet state to shape the consciousness of citizens and explores the nature of the citizen-subject and of Islam that is constructed within post-Soviet state discourse. In this discourse, Islam is not treated as a universal Truth that transcends cultural and national boundaries but is localised within the government's conception of an authentic, indigenous culture. It is constructed as an element of a Central Asian ‘Golden Heritage’ (oltin meros) to which the nation is returning after decades of Soviet rule. ‘Good’ Islam is portrayed as culturally authentic, tolerant of other religious traditions in the region, and nonpolitical. ‘Bad’ Islam is characterised as alien in origin, antithetical to Central Asian spiritual values, intolerant in that it espouses a narrow version of Islam that excludes many Central Asian practices, and politically motivated. Interpretations of Islam not endorsed within state discourse are labelled as extremist and ‘Wahhabi’, with links to international networks of terror.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.