Paper long abstract:

This research empirically explores the diversity of Islam in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and the implications of that diversity for social-political attitudes. Our guiding hypotheses are 1) Kyrgyzstani Muslims can be categorized into gender-based religious groupings defined by different levels of adherence to the five Pillars of Islam as well as frequency of mosque visits and the personal importance of religion and 2) membership in these religious groupings influences social-political attitudes. Using a 2011 nationwide survey based on face-to-face interviews of an adult sample of Muslims (N=1,040 respondents) drawn through a probability design in Kyrgyzstan and applying a statistical modeling technique called latent class analysis, we empirically identify three relatively homogeneous groups of religiosity within each gender and note that, with the exception of the indicator of mosque attendance, these groupings exhibit a high degree of measurement invariance between the genders. Looking at four issues covering preferences for religious law versus civil law, religious education in state and religious schools, girls' right to wear the headscarf in school, and Islam in politics, we find significant differences among the religious groupings even when the influences of region, urbanity, and ethnic background are statistically controlled through a series of multinomial regression analyses converted to readily comprehensible tabular analyses. The patterns for most of our primary results tend to be similar for females and males. Our findings strongly suggest that the basic narratives which treat Muslims as a single, unified community or which simply contrast Muslims and non-Muslims need to be expanded to capture meaningful variations in social-political attitudes. Our findings are consistent with the theoretical notion that Kyrgyzstani Muslims form religiously based subcultures in which the highly active (more devout) Muslims (approximately 45% of all Muslim females and 39% of all Muslim males in this national sample) form a subculture which seeks to extend Islamic values into various secular realms.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims at analyzing contemporary development of Sufism in Central Eurasia within the context of several major transnational Sufi orders. My work is still in progress and I will limit my focus mainly to two regional cases, i.e. Ukraine and Germany.

Paper long abstract:

Institutional structure of Sufi communities encompasses initiative hierarchies of dominance and collective solidarities. The typical model of leadership in Sufi communities is charismatic authority, when religious authority is derived from charisma of Sheikh (Werbner 2003: 282). Sufi hierarchical link can be extended to transcend the life of the Sheikh and become institutionalized and thus serve to attract and guide followers long after his death (Eickelman and Piscatori 1996: 73).

Spiritual genealogies (salasil) of Sufi orders (turuq), which incorporate Sheikhs representing different historical periods and regions, clearly display ideas of their imagined origin, historical development and geographical expansion. Historically trans-regional Sufi cults mediated connections between the different parts of the Islamicate World (Ho 2006, Bang 2014) and still perform some of these functions today in diasporas in the Muslim-minority countries (Raudvere, Stenberg 2009: 5).

I argue that with gradual territorial expansion of Sufi networks mediated connection through the local representatives replaces direct links of loyalty with the network leader.

I argue that locally constructed charisma negotiated by local Sufi community and its spiritual leader can challenge general charisma of Sufi order represented by its founders and current spiritual leaders.

I also address broader scope of issues, including theoretical inquiry into concepts of "charisma", "spiritual capital", and "redemptive sociality".

Present paper is based on the interdisciplinary research that combines historical inquiry into the development of the several Sufi communities and anthropological research that encompass data collected through fieldwork in these communities in Ukraine and Germany.

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Paper long abstract:

This paper will examine Soviet Kazakh Publications on Kazakh Religious History and Identity. It builds on both my CESS 2016 and 2017 papers, the former being titled "Kazakh Islam in the Soviet Period: The Post-Khrushchev concern for Pre-Islamic Remnants in Historical Perspective" and the latter treating Soviet historiography of Abai and Islam. My 2016 and proposed 2018 papers together comprise work on a chapter within a monograph on Kazakh Muslim History and Identity successfully proposed for University of Pittsburgh Press's Central Eurasia in Context series. This second part of the study explores some 20-30 books on Islam (as well as Animism and Shamanism) published in the Kazakh language during the Soviet period, down to 1991. 17 of these works were cited but, due to their inaccessibility at the time, not explored within my CESS 2016 paper. Depending on the results of my upcoming research trip to Kazakhstan, my paper this time will also incorporate consideration of major journal (as well as newspaper, magazine and other published) articles. The aim is ultimately to place these publications within a broader analytical critique of late Tsarist and Soviet historiography of Kazakh religious history and identity, with special concern for how this history of historiography continues shaping present ongoing debates in the Post-Soviet as well as post-9/11 Kazakh context (cf. my CESS 2008 paper which was later expanded into my 2014 Journal of Islamic Studies article on "Religious-Cultural Revivalism as Historiographical Debate: Contending Claims in the Post-Soviet Context").