Politicizing Islam in Central Asia: From the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads

Author:   Kathleen Collins (Associate Professor of Political Science, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN:  

9780197685068


Pages:   584
Publication Date:   27 June 2023
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Politicizing Islam in Central Asia: From the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads


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Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kathleen Collins (Associate Professor of Political Science, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.50cm , Height: 3.50cm , Length: 15.60cm
Weight:   0.939kg
ISBN:  

9780197685068


ISBN 10:   0197685064
Pages:   584
Publication Date:   27 June 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

List of Figures List of Images List of Tables List of Maps Acknowledgements Technical Note List of Acronyms PART I Introduction 1: Secular Authoritarianism, Ideology, and Islamist Mobilization PART II: The USSR Politicizes Islam 2: The Russian Revolution and Muslim Mobilization 3: The Atheist State: Repressing and Politicizing Islam 4: Muslim Belief and Everyday Resistance PART III: Tajikistan: From Moderate Islamists to Muslim Democrats 5: The Islamic Revival Party Challenges Communism 6: A Democratic Islamic Party Confronts An Extremist Secular State 7: The Attraction and Limits of Islamist Ideas in Tajikistan PART IV: Uzbekistan: From Salafists to Salafi-Jihadists 8: Seeking Justice and Purity: Islamists against Communism and Karimov 9: Making Extremists: The Uzbek Jihad Moves to Afghanistan 10: The Attraction and Limits of Islamist Ideas in Uzbekistan PART V: Kyrgyzstan: Civil Islam and Emergent Islamists 11: Religious Liberalization and Civil Islam in Kyrgyzstan 12: Emergent Islamism in Kyrgyzstan 13: The Attraction and Limits of Islamist Ideas in Kyrgyzstan PART VI: From Central Asia to Syria: Transnational Salafi-Jihadists 14: Central Asians Join the Syrian Jihad 15: From Central Asia to Afghanistan, Syria, and Beyond Appendix Glossary Index

Reviews

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 with individuals and focus groups allows her to bring society back 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 and Director of Middle East Studies, Carleton College * 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, Uzbekistan, along the way revealing insights about their root causes and varied trajectories, and centering the lived experiences of many Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Uzbek religious believers. Without demonizing or sensationalizing Islam or its sometimes-political role, Collins enriches our understanding of how both Soviet and Post-Soviet repression have often had the unintended consequence of making Islam more resilient, and when combined with certain factors, grow into a political viable opposition. Anyone endeavoring to understand the fabric of modern-day Central Asia should closely read Collin's scholarship. * Steve Swerdlow, University of Southern California *


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, Uzbekistan, along the way revealing insights about their root causes and varied trajectories, and centering the lived experiences of many Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Uzbek religious believers. Without demonizing or sensationalizing Islam or its sometimes-political role, Collins enriches our understanding of how both Soviet and Post-Soviet repression have often had the unintended consequence of making Islam more resilient, and when combined with certain factors, grow into a political viable opposition. Anyone endeavoring to understand the fabric of modern-day Central Asia should closely read Collin's scholarship. * Steve Swerdlow, University of Southern California *


Author Information

Kathleen Collins is Associate Professor of Political Science and an Affiliate Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Collins is recipient of the national Carnegie Scholar Award and the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award. Collins is also author of Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia (2006), which won the award for the best book in the social science fields from the international Central Eurasian Studies Society. She won the S. M. Lipset Award in a national competition for the best dissertation in Comparative Politics or Sociology. She has published two dozen academic articles in edited books and journals. Collins teaches doctoral and undergraduate courses on Central Asian politics, Russian/Soviet history and politics, Afghanistan's wars, political Islam, Islam and democracy, and religion and politics. Additionally, she has worked on projects with or consulted for the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Program, the International Crisis Group, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and Freedom House. She has presented her work to multiple US government agencies, including the Helsinki Commission, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense.

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