Public Policy towards Islam in Central Asia (Case of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan) in Post-Soviet Period

The study presents the results of a comparative analysis of public policy towards Islam in Central Asia in post-soviet period. In the study the case of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan is analyzed. Addressing the research problem of the relationship between government policy towards Islam and the processes of Islamization in these countries, we use the methodology of comparative analysis of data. The data for analysis legislative acts, statistics on the number of non-state religious institutions, Islamic educational institutions and research centers, secondary representative survey data obtained from the materials of the sixth wave of the World Values Survey. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that there is a significant gap between the attribution of society to Islam and the observance of religious norms and regulations; the intensity of participation in religious life is also low. Legislation in the religious sphere in all three countries first was characterized by liberalism and democracy, but gradually there were changes in the direction of tightening control over the religious sphere. During the post-soviet period, an increase in the number of Islamic organizations and Islamic educational institutions has been observed in all three countries analyzed. The latest state concepts and strategies in the religious sphere revealed the active use of terminology in these documents, in which religion is strongly linked to the national, cultural and historical heritage of nation of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. In general, the policy of all three states in the religious sphere achieves the goal that it pursues. The religious sphere of society with varying success is controlled by the state. The results of the polls reflect the predominance of the “traditional” or “national” perception of Islam by the population, which is what the state power of these countries seeks, seeking to link Islam with the national-cultural heritage.