Publication

Starting in the late 1980s and flourishing in the late 1990s, Islamic revival has been increasingly more visible in the public in Kyrgyzstan. This religious trend, however, has been taking place in a still powerful secular context. In this report, the author will focus on the secularist elite discourse: In what ways do the secularist elites respond to the religious changes. It is concluded that the secularist critique is not against Islam but rather against the way in which it is being framed and practiced and that it does not take into account the Kyrgyz way of life at all.