Paper long abstract:

The 2014 religion policy of Kyrgyzstan has categorized between traditional and nontraditional forms of Islam. While traditional is portrayed in the state discourse as tolerant, apoilitical, and harmless, nontraditional is seen as a source of extremism and a threat to society and the state endorsed form of Islam. The theories of postructuralist discourse analysis and securitization were combined to analyze the official state discourse and traditional imams' discourse. In order to construct narratives, independent scholars, religion agency experts, imams and theologians were interviewed. In addition, the primary documents on the religion law and speeches of the president were analyzed. Most of the respondents agreed that the key reason for the introduction of the new religion policy has been the growing influence of Salafism, a nontraditional Islamic group threatening the dominant traditional Hanafism. I argue that the dichotomous categorization of only two forms of Islam does not depict the more complex picture where some groups are partially traditional and partially non-traditional. Had it not been for the political goals, Hizb ut Tahrir would perfectly fit to the category of the traditional. Moreover, the new religion policy being dictated by the state seems to have affected mainly moderate nontraditional Islamic groups including moderate Salafits while extremist nontraditional groups are not affected. One of the greatest impacts of the categorization has been delegitimization of disloyal Islamic groups while the homegrown traditional Hanafism has been provided a chance to be the major player in town. The 2014 religion policy thus facilitated an increased control of Islamic groups for the state which sees them as a threat and a potential challenger.