Artman, Vincent M. (2018) Nation, Religion, and Theology: What Do We Mean When We Say “Being Kyrgyz Means Being Muslim?”. Central Asian Affairs, 5 (3). 191 -212. ISSN 2214-2282
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Scholars of Central Asia often view religion and ethno-national identity as being linked: “to be Kyrgyz (or Uzbek, Kazakh, etc.) is to be Muslim.” The specific ways in which the relationship between ethno-national identity and religion is constructed and understood, however, have not been adequately researched. “Being Muslim” is not merely an ethnic marker: it can imply a range of different, perhaps even competing, theologies with different relationships to national identity. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, this article investigates the question of what it means to be Kyrgyz and to be Muslim by undertaking a comparative analysis of two Islamic discourses: Kyrgyz ethno-national traditionalism and the normative Maturidi Hanafism promoted by the Kyrgyz state and the religious authorities. What emerges is a portrait of a complex and variegated religious landscape, one in which the meaning of being Kyrgyz and Muslim is continually questioned and renegotiated.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | ethno-nationalism; national identity |
| Subjects: | B Mission theology/theory > Identity issues F Interreligious Dialogue and Witness |
| Divisions: | Central Asia > Kyrgyzstan |
| Depositing User: | Katharina Penner |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Feb 2026 10:04 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Feb 2026 10:04 |
| URI: | https://ceeamsprints.osims.org/id/eprint/3240 |
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