Politicizing Islam in Central Asia
From the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:14th Dec '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£64.00(9780197685068)
A sweeping history of Islamism in Central Asia from the Russian Revolution to the present through Soviet-era archival documents, oral histories, and a trove of interviews and focus groups. Few observers anticipated a surge of Islamism in Central Asia, after seventy years of forced communist atheism. Muslims do not inevitably support Islamism, a modern political ideology of Islam. Yet, Islamism became the dominant form of political opposition in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In Politicizing Islam in Central Asia, Kathleen Collins explores the causes, dynamics, and variation in Islamist movements-first within the USSR, and then in the post-Soviet states of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic and historical research on Islamist mobilization, she explains the strategies and relative success of each Central Asian Islamist movement. Collins argues that in each case, state repression of Islam, by Soviet and post-Soviet regimes, together with the diffusion of religious ideologies, motivated Islamist mobilization. Sweeping in scope, this book traces the dynamics of Central Asian Islamist movements from the Soviet era through the Tajik civil war, the Afghan jihad against the US, and the foreign fighter movement joining the Syrian jihad.
Remarkable in scope and depth, drawing on everything from interviews in the Ferghana Valley to jihadi propaganda in multiple languages, Collins' book is a contender for the definitive work on the rise of militant Islamism in Central Asia. * Thomas Hegghammer, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford University, and author of The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad and Jihad in Saudi Arabia *
A groundbreaking study of Islamism's evolution in Central Asia, Kathleen Collins' remarkable feat of scholarship should be required reading for all serious analysts and observers of this important region. Collins' book offers irrefutable evidence that religious freedom is the best counterterrorism policy. * Mike Croissant, US government counterterrorism officer (ret.) *
Politicizing Islam covers a lot of ground and is based on a massive amount of sustained original research. Collins traces three waves of Islamist mobilization, each one a response to state repression. Her use of interviews and focus groups allows her to bring society back in into the analysis. She makes a clearly thought-out argument on the basis of impressive research. * Adeeb Khalid, Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies and History, Carleton College, and author of Making Uzbekistan and Islam After Communism *
Collins achieves something extraordinary in this masterful and careful analysis of Islamism in Central Asia. Based on years of in-depth interviews, archival materials, and other sources, Collins traces the emergence of Islamist movements, from the moderate and democratic to the radical and militant in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Along the way, she reveals the lived experiences of many Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek religious believers. Without demonizing Islam or sensationalizing Islamism, Collins enriches our understanding of both Soviet and post-Soviet religious repression and its unintended consequences: making Islam more resilient and fostering a religious basis for political opposition. Anyone endeavoring to understand the fabric of modern-day Central Asia should closely read Collins' scholarship. * Steve Swerdlow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights, University of Southern California, and former Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch *
Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. * Choice *
ISBN: 9780197685075
Dimensions: 157mm x 235mm x 34mm
Weight: 848g
584 pages