scholarly journals Islam and Dispute Resolution in Central Asia: The Case of Women Muslim Leaders

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Merrell

This quick study highlights the need for future research among Muslim leaders, especially women leaders (otinoyi singular; otinoyilar plural), on the neglected topic of how Islam influences dispute resolution in Central Asia. The post-Soviet countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) have Muslim-majority populations and secular governments. As such, Islamic jurisprudence is not a source of state law and official Islamic courts do not exist there as in many other Muslim-majority countries. Islamic courts and jurisprudence did prevail in Central Asia but they were abolished by the Soviet Union and replaced with secular Soviet laws and courts. Therefore, it is easy to assume that Islamic legal authorities no longer influence the resolution of interpersonal disputes in Central Asia. Before accepting this assumption, it is necessary to explore the role of Islam in non-state dispute resolution processes in Central Asia.

Author(s):  
Atola Longkumer

Of the two Asian regions, socio-economically, South Asia presents both prosperity and abject poverty, embedded in varying traditions. Central Asian states are well-endowed with natural resources and sustain a diverse cultural heritage against a backdrop of Islam. The indigenous shamanic cultures that have sustained myriad indigenous people (often described by terms such as tribals, Adivasis, minorities) for generations across South Asia need to be recognised along with its globalisation. Healing, use of traditional medicines, the position and role of women, caste hierarchy and the relationship with the other are incorporated into South Asian Christianity. ‘Anonymous Christians’ have also contributed to concepts such as ‘insider movements’ to discuss embedded followers of Jesus. In Central Asia, Charismatic Christianity is finding particular resonance. The relative freedom of religious expression has given opportunities for Christians to witness to the gospel. The potential ecumenical relationship with the existing Orthodox Church presents an opportunity for global Christianity. Christianity has received fresh interest in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the nation-states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Theological creativity along with prophetic proclamation will be needed to balance these challenges of culture and faith in the region.


2017 ◽  
Vol II (I) ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Ayaz Ahmad ◽  
Sana Hussan ◽  
Syed Ali Shah

Russian influence in Muslim Muslim Central Asia was far reaching. The transformational force of Russian presence first emerged in the administrative setup and governance, soon it spread to the domain of education and sociocultural symbols. The Muslim Central Asian society lost its connection with Muslim world in neighborhood as Russian alphabets, lexemes and structures. The Tsarist era initiated these changes but its scope remained limited. In quest for making the Muslim Central Asians emulate the role of “new Russian man” the Soviet era used force to popularize and cultivate Russian language and culture. However, the distrust among Russian diaspora and Muslim Central Asian local population was deep seated. Once the Soviet Union fell, the demographic and linguistic changes were attacked by nationalists. Despite the post-1991 attempts, Russian language is still dominant in Muslim Central Asia as compared to English and other modern European languages


Author(s):  
Ario Bimo Utomo

This article attempts to explain the process of Islamic consolidation in Kazakhstan, a young Muslim-majority state in Central Asia which became independent following the demise of the Soviet Union. Unlike its turbulent regional neighbors, Kazakhstan has virtually been not troubled by the threat of extremists, making its success an interesting case to discuss. There are some aspects which this essay is going to analyze. First, using the consolidation framework, I am going to examine how the rise of Islam is facilitated after the demise of the Soviet Union. Second, I also add another element namely securitization. This paper argues that securitisation is the additional strategy which creates a stable condition of Islamic consolidation in Kazakhstan. This paper concludes with giving some reflections on the future of Islam and the political stability in Kazakhstan. 


Author(s):  
Daniel Beben

The Ismailis are one of the largest Muslim minority populations of Central Asia, and they make up the second largest Shiʿi Muslim community globally. First emerging in the second half of the 8th century, the Ismaili missionary movement spread into many areas of the Islamic world in the 10th century, under the leadership of the Ismaili Fatimids caliphs in Egypt. The movement achieved astounding success in Central Asia in the 10th century, when many of the political and cultural elites of the region were converted. However, a series of repressions over the following century led to its almost complete disappearance from the metropolitan centers of Central Asia. The movement later re-emerged in the mountainous Badakhshan region of Central Asia (which encompasses the territories of present-day eastern Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan), where it was introduced by the renowned 11th-century Persian poet, philosopher, and Ismaili missionary Nasir-i Khusraw. Over the following centuries the Ismaili movement expanded among the populations of Badakhshan, reaching a population of over 200,000 in the 21st century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Ismailis suffered a series of severe repressions, first under local Sunni Muslim rulers and later under the antireligious policies of the Soviet Union. However, in the decades since the end of the Soviet period, the Ismailis of the region have become increasingly connected with the global Ismaili community and its leadership. While many aspects of the history of Ismailism in the Badakhshan region remain obscure and unexplored, the discoveries of significant corpuses of manuscripts in private collections since the 1990s in the Badakhshan region have opened up wide possibilities for future research.


Author(s):  
M. T. Laumulin

The features of formation of statehood in Central Asia in the post-Soviet period are discussed in this article. The author makes the assumption that the Central Asian region has lost the homogeneity, said by researches. The way of construction of nation-states after the collapse of the Soviet Union is traced in this article. Also, it tells about the role of clans and family relations in Central Asia. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Zhiltsov ◽  
I. S. Zonn

Central Asia is the territory connecting Europe, Near East, South and East Asia. This is a bridge between East and West, the cross-road of civilizations, one of the key geopolitical regions that has acquired special importance after breakup of the Soviet Union. However, this is also the unstable region, a tough player threatening world peace. Central Asia locates in complicated natural and climatic conditions where the key and vital natural resource is water which requires, on the one hand, its saving and, on the other, the permanent search for possibilities to increase its reserves.This is the region with the world’s highest rate of population growth — to 2.0 % per annum. At present the population of Central Asia without Afghanistan is 70.6 million and with Afghanistan 105.2 million.The uneven distribution of water resources over the territory and their insufficiency, the constantly growing water consumption lead to the competitive demand for water at the national and regional levels. The water deficit and deterioration of water quality are the serious challenges which have been faced by many regional countries. The key issue determining the internal stability in the region was and still remains the water-energy balance.


Author(s):  
S. Rustami ◽  

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and independence by the Central Asian countries, each of the countries has chosen its own individual development path and model for building relationships with the world community and with the states of the region (CA). This issue is particularly relevant in the context of majorchanges caused by the improvement of relations between the countries of the region, the change and transit of power in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (peacefully without war and revolution). Dramatic changes occurred in foreign and domestic policy in Uzbekistan with the advent of Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the implementation of very serious and large-scale reforms in the country, which led to the rapprochement and improvement of relations between Uzbekistan and all countries of the region in a very short period. The article discusses the initiatives of regional unification by the countries of Central Asia and their measures taken along this path, as well as the role of regional actors and their alternative projects for the countries of the region.


2018 ◽  
pp. 550-563
Author(s):  
Daniel Sawert ◽  

The article assesses archival materials on the festival movement in the Soviet Union in 1950s, including its peak, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in 1957 in Moscow. Even now the Moscow festival is seen in the context of international cultural politics of the Cold War and as a unique event for the Soviet Union. The article is to put the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in the context of other youth festivals held in the Soviet Union. The festivals of 1950s provided a field for political, social, and cultural experiments. They also have been the crucible of a new way of communication and a new language of design. Furthermore, festivals reflected the new (althogh relative) liberalism in the Soviet Union. This liberalism, first of all, was expressed in the fact that festivals were organized by the Komsomol and other Soviet public and cultural organisations. Taking the role of these organisations into consideration, the research draws on the documents of the Ministry of culture, the All-Russian Stage Society, as well as personal documents of the artists. Furthermore, the author has gained access to new archive materials, which have until now been part of no research, such as documents of the N. Krupskaya Central Culture and Art Center and of the central committees of various artistic trade unions. These documents confirm the hypothesis that the festivals provided the Komsomol and the Communist party with a means to solve various social, educational, and cultural problems. For instance, in Central Asia with its partiarchal society, the festivals focuced on female emancipation. In rural Central Asia, as well as in other non-russian parts of the Soviet Union, there co-existed different ways of celebrating. Local traditions intermingled with cultural standards prescribed by Moscow. At the first glance, the modernisation of the Soviet society was succesful. The youth acquired political and cultural level that allowed the Soviet state to compete with the West during the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students. During the festival, however, it became apparent, that the Soviet cultural scheme no longer met the dictates of times. Archival documents show that after the Festival cultural and party officials agreed to ease off dogmatism and to tolerate some of the foreign cultural phenomena.


Author(s):  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  

The author of the publication reviews the photobook “Palimpsests”, published in 2018 in the publishing house “Ad Marginem Press” with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The book presents photos of post-Soviet cities taken by M. Sher. Preface, the author of which is the coordinator of the “Democracy” program of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Russia N. Fatykhova, as well as articles by M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush, which accompany these photos, contain explanation of the peculiarities of urban space formation and patterns of its habitation in the Soviet Union times and in the post-Soviet period. The author of the publication highly appreciates the publication under review. Analyzing the photographic works of M. Sher and their interpretation undertaken in the articles, the author of the publication agrees with the main conclusions of N. Fatykhova, M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush with regards to the importance of the role of the state in the processes of urban development and urbanization in the Soviet and post-Soviet space, but points out that the second factor that has a key influence on these processes is ownership relations. The paper positively assesses the approach proposed by the authors of the photobook to the study of the post-Soviet city as an architectural and landscape palimpsest consisting mainly of two layers, “socialist” and “capitalist”. The author of the publication specifically emphasizes the importance of analyzing the archetypal component of this palimpsest, pointing out that the articles published in the reviewed book do not pay sufficient attention to this issue. Particular importance is attributed by the author to the issue of metageography of post-Soviet cities and meta-geographical approach to their exploration. Emphasizing that the urban palimpsest is a system of realities, each in turn including a multitude of ideas, meanings, symbols, and interpretations, the author points out that the photobook “Palimpsests” is actually an invitation to a scientific game with space, which should start a new direction in the study of post-Soviet urban space.


Author(s):  
Roman Kotsan

The article considers smuggling as economic crime in the Soviet-Polish border in the interwar period. The reasons for smuggling activities are studied and summarized. Range of smuggled goods is shown. The number of arrested smugglers, their nationality, the value of seized goods both from Poland and the Soviet Union are investigated. Smuggling as a political phenomenon in the Soviet-Polish border in 1921-1939 is under study. The use of smugglers by the intelligence agencies of both Poland and the USSR are emphasized. The role of public authorities of both abovementioned countries in the fight against smuggling, namely Border Guard Corps from Poland; border guards, customs, security services and local Soviet authorities on the part of the USSR are studied. The influence of anti smuggling measures (increased criminal liability, limitation of private capital in trade, strengthen of the state borders protection) on its amount decrease is studied. Keywords: State border, smuggling, crime, scouting, Poland, USSR


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