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Islam in Kazakhstan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Islam in Kazakhstan is the most commonly practiced religion. Most Kazakh Muslims are Sunni Hanafis.[1] Only 47% of the population identifies as Muslim, a slight majority over the 46% that considers itself Christian.
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Many Kazakh nomads did not convert to Islam until the 18th or 19th centuries.
Soviet authorities attempted to encourage a controlled form of Islam as a unifying force in the Central Asian societies while at the same time prohibiting true religious freedom. Since independence, religious activity has increased significantly. Construction of mosques and religious schools accelerated in the 1990s, with financial help from Turkey, Egypt, and, primarily, Saudi Arabia. In 1991 170 mosques were operating, more than half of them newly built. At that time an estimated 230 Muslim communities were active in Kazakstan.
In 1990 Nursultan Nazarbayev, then the First Secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party, created a state basis for Islam by removing Kazakstan from the authority of the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the Soviet-approved and politically oriented religious administration for all of Central Asia. Instead, Nazarbayev created a separate muftiate, or religious authority, for Kazakh Muslims. However, Nazarbayev's choice of Ratbek hadji Nysanbayev to be the first Kazakh mufti proved an unpopular one. Accusing him of financial irregularities, religious mispractice, and collaboration with the Soviet and Kazakstani state security apparatus, a group of believers from the nationalist Alash political party attempted unsuccessfully to replace the mufti in December 1991.
With an eye toward the Islamic governments of nearby Iran and Afghanistan, the writers of the 1993 constitution specifically forbade religious political parties. The 1995 constitution forbids organizations that seek to stimulate racial, political, or religious discord, and imposes strict governmental control on foreign religious organizations. As did its predecessor, the 1995 constitution stipulates that Kazakstan is a secular state; thus, Kazakstan is the only Central Asian state whose constitution does not assign a special status to Islam. This position was based on the Nazarbayev government's foreign policy as much as on domestic considerations. Aware of the potential for investment from the Muslim countries of the Middle East, Nazarbayev visited Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia; at the same time, however, he preferred to cast Kazakstan as a bridge between the Muslim East and the Christian West. For example, he initially accepted only observer status in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), all of whose member nations are predominantly Muslim. The president's first trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, which occurred in 1994, was part of an itinerary that also included a visit to Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.
Certain pre-Islamic holidays such as the spring festival Navruz were reintroduced in 1995.
- This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
- ^ International Religious Freedom Report 2006 U.S. Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan
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