scholarly journals The Soviet Secularization Project in Central Asia: Accommodation and Institutional Legacies

Eurostudia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Thibault
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Soviet Rule ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Regulatory Institutions ◽  
Institutional Legacies

This article investigates the effects of the Soviet social engineering project and forced secularization in Central Asia. Emphasis is placed on the ideological foundations of Marxism-Leninism, its stance on atheism, its holistic character, and its ideological exclusivity. The article details the measures taken by authorities to eradicate religious beliefs during the seventy years of Soviet rule. Taking the case of Tajikistan, it highlights the remaining influence of Soviet policies on state-religion relations by reviewing the functions and responsibilities of current regulatory institutions as well as laws and official discourses framing religious practices.

Being Soviet, Muslim, Modernist, and Fundamentalist in 1950s Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-165
Author(s):  
Paolo Sartori ◽  
Bakhtiyar Babajanov
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Soviet Rule ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
Transformative Process ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Muslim Scholars

AbstractHow far, if at all, did the intellectual legacy of early 20th-century Muslim reformism inform the transformative process which Islam underwent in Soviet Central Asia, especially after WWII? Little has been done so far to analyze the output of Muslim scholars (ʿulamāʾ) operating under Soviet rule from the perspective of earlier Islamic intellectual traditions. The present essay addresses this problem and sheds light on manifestations of continuity among Islamic intellectual practices—mostly puritanical—from the period immediately before the October Revolution to the 1950s. Such a continuity, we argue, profoundly informed the activity of the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (SADUM) established in Tashkent in 1943 and, more specifically, the latter’s attack against manifestations of religiosity deemed “popular,” which were connected to the cult of saints. Thus, this essay posits that the juristic output of Soviet ʻulamā’ in Central Asia originates from and further develops an Islamic reformist thinking, which manifested itself in the region in the late 19th- and early 20th-century. By establishing such an intellectual genealogy, we seek in this article to revise a historiographical narrative which has hitherto tended to decouple scripturalist sensibilities from Islamic reformism and modernism.

Islam and nationalism: Central Asia and Kazakhstan under Soviet rule

1983 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Rakowska‐Harmstone
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Soviet Rule

The Delphic Oracle: Belief and Behaviour in Ancient Greece—and Africa

1965 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Whittaker
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Modern Trend ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Real ◽  
Cultural Institution

Until comparatively recently writers on religion were absorbed by questions concerning the origins of religious beliefs and practices. They endowed primitive man with a kind of rational logicality in his belief, or, like Frazer, they saw his religious practices as simply the application of erroneous reasoning. The modern trend is to try to view the religious or cultural institution as an essential part of society, existing because of the needs of that society. This is the theme, for instance, of Malinowski when he says that “religion is not born out of speculation or reflection, still less out of illusion or misapprehension, but rather out of the real tragedies of human life, out of the conflict between human plans and realities.”

Religious belief, meaning and argument

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Sweet
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Anglo American

This paper continues the discussion in recent Anglo-American epistemology of religion concerning "truth" in religion and the relevance of argument or philosophical proof. The author proposes an analysis of religious belief that takes into account both the practice of believers and the understanding of religious truth frequently given by them. Such an analysis provides a description of the character of religious truth, holds that the meaning and truth of religious beliefs are not determined purely within religious practices or discourses, and offers an explanation as to why it is generally difficult to reach agreement about the truth of specific religious beliefs.

scholarly journals BOSNIAN IDENTITY BETWEEN NATIONALISM, (IN)TOLERANCE AND (A)THEISM

2017 ◽  
pp. 037
Author(s):  
Alma Jeftic
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The Body ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Jigsaw Puzzle ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Divided Society ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Post War ◽  
New System

This article discusses the historical changes in religious practices in Bosnia-Herzegovina from the communist era to the post-war period in line with their influence on identity and intergroup (inter-ethnic, inter-religious) relations. There is a lack of evidence on whether people did not overtly express their religious beliefs during communism even though they were covertly religious, or whether they started engaging in the religious practice during and after the 1992-1995 war in order to establish group connectedness, cohesion, and fulfill certain needs. “Bosnian identity” will be described as a puzzle formed by the “remains” of the previous regime and the “new additions” of the post-war period. The discourse of power dominates in Bosnia-Herzegovina and enables prohibitions of different types of dialogue that can lead to better understanding of differences and Other(s). The main problem that will be addressed in this article is the (non)existing Bosnian identity analyzed through “jouissance” of nationalism, intolerance and religion. The contradictions of Sigmund Freud’s concept of identification, and the relation of that concept to the body and power in a post-war divided society will be discussed. We can conclude that the main discourse of power operates with religion in order to establish the “jigsaw puzzle of Bosnian identity”. The presence of those who either live in a different system (yugonostalgic people, Homo Yugoslavicus), or those who do not believe (atheists) simply adds a new dimension to the currently established system which can be used to further explain if the overtly expressed beliefs will remain unchanged in case of the establishment of a new system.

Nomads and Soviet Rule. Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 752-753
Author(s):  
Jonathan Z. Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Soviet Rule

Memoirs of Kerim Bey Ratay: Unknown Turkmen History Source from the Late 19th Century to the First Third of the 20th Century

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
С.М. Исхаков
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Soviet Rule ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social

Статья посвящена малоизвестной биографии Керим бея Ратая, представителя туркменского народа, и его трактовки истории борьбы туркмен за самоопределение в первой трети ХХ века. Публикуемая записка представляет собой источник, который отражает разные проблемы, связанные с туркменской историей, содержит его размышления о ситуации в Средней Азии, об историческом процессе в Северной Евразии, сведения, которые, которые потребуют дополнительного изучения. Из приведенных им рассуждений следует, что туркмены испытывали неприятие навязываемого им большевиками пути общественного развития, борясь за самостоятельность. На его взгляд, борьба туркмен в условиях советской власти вовсе не прекратилась, а закончится только тогда, когда ими будет завоевана независимость, когда ими будет воссоздано собственное государство, что и произошло с распадом СССР. This article presents a biography of Kerim Bey Ratay, a Turkmen, and his interpretation of the Turkmen struggle for self-determination in the first third of the 20th century. The source published here reflects various problems of Turkmen history, contains Kerim's thoughts on the situation in Central Asia, and gives insight on the historical processes in Northern Eurasia, providing information that requires further research. His take on the situation indicates that the Turkmen people did not like the social development choices being forced on them by the Bolsheviks and were fighting for independence. In his opinion, the Turkmen struggle never ceased after the establishment of Soviet rule and that it would only end when the Turkmen gained independence and reestablished their own state – that is exactly what happened with the dissolution of the USSR.

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