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Paper long abstract:

Islamic discourse in Azerbaijan—and broader discourse on national identity—has since the rise of nationalism around the second half of the nineteenth century in this part of the world been dominated and defined by the elite thinking and agency, with intra-societal dialogue on the matter, including in particular across the religious-secular divide, systematically muted and suppressed. This paper will offer an account of the dynamics behind the religious-secular divide in Azerbaijan over the past two decades of independence and the conditions underlying the ongoing process of normalization of Islamic discourse and the unfolding partnership across the country's religious-secular political landscape. The paper will begin by outlining the elite's attitudes to Islam, and the strategy of separating religion and politics in which those attitudes find expression. It will then proceed to show the complicity of civil society and the broader populace in the post-Soviet reproduction of the narrative of Islamic threat and the resultant religious-secular divide. The paper will follow up by discussing key factors contributing to the ongoing normalization of Islam across the public realm and the gradual bridging of the religious-secular divide amid ongoing state repression; among these factors being the primacy of the democratization agenda (for both religious and secular forces) over all other cleavages in the face of the lack of basic liberties. The paper will conclude by discussing the tactical nature of the religious-secular alliance and the incompatibility of the strategic narratives on democracy, secularism, and state-religion separation adhered to by the two camps.