Islam and Secular State in Uzbekistan: State Control of Religion and its Implications for the Understanding of Secularity

Secularity appears in a variety of forms shaped by different historical developpments as well as political and religious circumstances. The forms of secularity may be divided into categories such as the passive and the assertive. To understand the situation in present day Uzbekistan, or indeed any of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, however, these categories are not completely sufficient. First of all the quite recent history of the region includes a form of anti-religiosity – the scientific atheism of the Soviet Union – which aimed not just to separate religion from the state, but to eradicate religion altogether and should therefore perhaps not be defined as secularism in the normal sense of the word. Secondly, present day Uzbekistan has traits that fit into both of the aforementioned categories. On the one hand Islam is celebrated as a national heritage and a moral guideline, and politicians are often seen in religious contexts. On the other hand there are laws against for example proselytizing, and thus restrictions on religious expressions in the public sphere. About the more fundamental question of the separation between state and religion, the factor of state control and what it means for religious authority cannot be overlooked. The situation in Uzbekistan appears in some ways as a one-sided entanglement rather than a separation; the state controls religion but religion is not allowed to affect the laws or the political structures of the country.