Contesting and negotiating religion and ethnic identity in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

Radford, David (2014) Contesting and negotiating religion and ethnic identity in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Central Asian Survey, 33 (1). pp. 15-28.

Full text not available from this repository.
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2013.871831

Abstract

Post-Soviet Central Asia has inherited a set of circumstances conducive to the revitalization of religion. The renewal of Muslim awareness and identity in Central Asia may not be surprising, but the growth of Christianity is, especially in its Protestant form within indigenous Muslim communities. This article, based on qualitative field research, reviews one example of this development: the process of conversion to Protestant Christianity among Muslim Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan. A prominent aspect of this social movement has been the ways in which Kyrgyz Christians have entered into a dynamic process of engaging with issues of identity and what it means to be Kyrgyz – a process that has sought to locate their new Christian religious identity within, rather than on the margins of, familial and ethnic identity, and one that challenges the normative understanding of Kyrgyz identity: that to be Kyrgyz is to be Muslim. While providing the context for Kyrgyz conversion, this discussion primarily focuses on the way Kyrgyz Christians utilize a number of different discursive strategies to contest normative Kyrgyz identity constructs and to legitimize a Kyrgyz Christian identity.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Ethnicity, minority religions
Subjects: B Mission theology/theory > Conversion
B Mission theology/theory > Identity issues
B Mission theology/theory > Contextualization/Inculturation
F Interreligious Dialogue and Witness > Islam > Christian-Muslim Dialogue
Divisions: Central Asia > Kyrgyzstan
Depositing User: Katharina Penner
Date Deposited: 27 Apr 2021 18:54
Last Modified: 27 Apr 2021 18:54
URI: https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/1896

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item