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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Uzbekistan
Index
Soviet authorities did not prohibit the practice of Islam as much as
they sought to coopt and utilize religion to placate a population that
often was unaware of the tenets of its faith. After its introduction in
the seventh century, Islam in many ways formed the basis of life in
Uzbekistan. The Soviet government encouraged continuation of the role
played by Islam in secular society. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had
sixty-five registered mosques and as many as 3,000 active mullahs and
other Muslim clerics. For almost forty years, the Muslim Board of Central
Asia, the official, Soviet-approved governing agency of the Muslim faith
in the region, was based in Tashkent. The grand mufti who headed the board
met with hundreds of foreign delegations each year in his official
capacity, and the board published a journal on Islamic issues, Muslims
of the Soviet East .
However, the Muslims working or participating in any of these
organizations were carefully screened for political reliability.
Furthermore, as the Uzbekistani government ostensibly was promoting Islam
with the one hand, it was working hard to eradicate it with the other. The
government sponsored official antireligious campaigns and severe
crackdowns on any hint of an Islamic movement or network outside of the
control of the state.
Moscow's efforts to eradicate and coopt Islam not only sharpened
differences between Muslims and others. They also greatly distorted the
understanding of Islam among Uzbekistan's population and created competing
Islamic ideologies among the Central Asians themselves.
Data as of March 1996
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