Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

1 3 8Islam i n World Cult u r e sthe focus back to the community: Islam could be safeguarded (against boththeological and geopolitical incursions) only if Muslims achieved success inthis world. Islam thus became the defining characteristic of the nation; indeed,it b e c a m e a nation. “Muslims” were now a community located in historyand geography and existing alongside other communities. “Islam” became acommonly used term, denoting not just a religion but also the community andits members.As with any other nation, the Muslim nation of Central Asia existed alongsidemany others; its essence was political rather than religious. In many Jadidwritings, the distinction between Islam as a faith and Muslims as a communitydisappeared entirely. Thus, Mahmud Xo’ja Behbudiy, the leading Jadid authorof Samarqand, could urge his compatriots to educate their children to become“judges, lawyers, engineers, teachers, the supporters and servants of thenation” so that they “would work for the true faith of Islam” (Behbudiy 1913,155). The true faith, the nation, and progress blended very easily to producewhat could be called a secular Muslim nationalism (Zürcher 1999). Islam wasstill connected to a communal identity, but the relationship had been reversed.The automatic connection between Islam and local custom was questioned,while the Jadids’ fascination with progress undermined respect for custom.At the same time, the Jadids’ fascination with progress allowed them tofind all modern innovations completely congruent with Islam (and indeed demandedby it). Although the Jadids disconnected Islam from local custom,they tied it back to the community through its political and economic interests.The implications were of fundamental importance: If Islam were conceivedas a community, it could exist without explicit reference to Islamic beha v i o r. The implementation of Islamic law was never an issue in the politics ofthe Muslim nation (the question of the Islamization of law belongs to a latergeneration of Islamic thought). In Central Asia (as indeed in much of the Ottomanworld), it was thus possible in the early twentieth century to be agnosticor even an atheist and yet retain a strong Muslim national identity. Recentcrises in the Balkans have forced us to recognize that such forms of identitycontinue to exist among Balkan Muslims; we need to remember how widespreadthe phenomenon was in the early parts of this century.Islam under Soviet RuleThe Russian Revolution and the resulting conquest of power by the Bolshevikstransformed the political and social context in which Islam was reproducedand transmitted. The new regime had an agenda completely different fromthat of its imperial predecessor, which had been content to ensure orderthrough minimal interference in society. The Bolsheviks were committed to a