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Paper abstract:

What is the nature of Soviet secularism? How does its conceptual and affective legacy impact the lives of post-Soviet Muslims today? Engaging with the burgeoning literature on secularism, my paper tackles these questions by focusing on the rise of Islamic piety movements in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Scholars specializing in Central Asia have been increasingly interested in these movements, inquiring into their genealogies and speculating about structural reasons for their spread. But I have been drawn to something else. I have been trying to understand how non-observant Kyrgyzstani Muslims grapple with the growing presence of pietistic Islam in their country. Although the piety movements are different from each other, all of them challenge Soviet ways of being Muslim by stressing the importance of regular rituals (e.g., the five daily prayers), Islamic ethics of dressing (i.e., covering certain parts of the body), and certain lifestyle choices (e.g., avoiding alcohol, gambling, and premarital sex). Precisely because of this, they ignite interest and curiosity, but also trigger enduring ambivalence, skepticism, anxiety, and even hostility among the non-observant majority of Kyrgyzstani Muslims. Drawing on two years of fieldwork in Bishkek, my paper shows how this range of affective reactions towards pietistic Islam reveals some of the key concepts through which the Soviet state enacted its sovereignty in Central Asia. Seen from this perspective, the post-Soviet Islamic revival acts as a sort of contrasting background that throws the conceptual and affective legacy of Soviet secularism into relief. Accounting for this legacy, I argue, is key to understanding the contemporary religious landscapes of Central Asia.