KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

Timur Kozukulov,
Senior lecturer, religious studies and humanities
Department of Theology, Osh State University
Searching for Solutions to the Problems of Islamic
Education in Kyrgyzstan
The spread of Islam in Kyrgyzstan has a long history. This process was complex
and protracted for several centuries.
Historically, Sunni Islam has dominated in the Republic. Sunni Islam of the
Hanafite School is the most moderate of local groups of Islam. It is characterized by
tolerance toward dissenters, compliance with local customs and traditions in daily life,
and freedom of individual judgments in legal issues.
The onset of Perestroika in the USSR in the 1980s initiated the revitalization and
“revival” of religious life, especially in the Muslim republics. Since then, regional
perspectives on religion have changed dramatically. In Kyrgyzstan, as in all the republics
of Central Asia, processes began of sovereignization and separation of the republican
kazyyats from the CASDM (Central Asian Spiritual Directorate of Muslims).
After Kyrgyzstan gained independence, fundamental changes in its spiritual life
have taken place. The religious spaces of Kyrgyzstan were revived. This resulted in the
formation of new state-religious relationships, an increasing number of religious sites,
a dramatic increase in the number of pilgrims, greater publication and distribution of
Islamic literature, emergence of a spiritual educational system, and the involvement of
religious organizations in social processes to better meet the spiritual needs of believers.
Non-believers, Muslims, Christians and representatives of other religions form
a multinational society in Kyrgyzstan, which consists of 30 major ethnic groups and
representatives of more than 80 nationalities.
The population of Kyrgyzstan is much more diverse than those of Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan. Only 79.9 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s population consider themselves Muslims.
These include all the representatives of Uzbek and Tajik ethnic minorities, and 94.1
percent of the ethnic Kyrgyz, although religious beliefs among the ex-nomadic Kyrgyz
have not historically been strong. Among those who consider themselves Muslim,
70.9 percent are Moslems because of family traditions, while 14.8 percent believe that
being Kyrgyz means being Muslim. Nevertheless, 40.3 percent rarely or never perform
“namaz”, and 17.6 percent perform namaz only during religious holidays. Only 20.7
percent perform namaz at least, once a day.
Few people in Kyrgyzstan have formal religious education (6.4 percent). Most
Moslems (24.9 percent) received basic religious education from their parents or relatives,
while others did so individually (11.9 percent) [2, p. 5].
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