Politicizing Islam in Central Asia

Reviews / Votes

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, and Uzbekistan. Along the way, she reveals the lived experiences of many Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek religious believers. Without demonizing Islam or sensationalizing Islamism, Collins enriches our understanding of both Soviet and post-Soviet religious repression and its unintended consequences: making Islam more resilient and fostering a religious basis for political opposition. Anyone endeavoring to understand the fabric of modern-day Central Asia should closely read Collins' scholarship. * Steve Swerdlow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights, University of Southern California, and former Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch * Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals. * Choice * Collins frequently writes with great nuance and sensitivity, as in the insightful discussionof sacred authority. Moreover, the book's latter chapters offer a lavishly documented description of post-Soviet Islamic radical movements, the first such comprehensive account to be written. * Eren Tasar, Journal of Church and State * This book makes a significant contribution to the study of religion and politics in Central Asia. It avoids simplistic narratives and instead offers a rich, well-detailed account of how civil Islam can evolve into radical Islamist movements under certain conditions. The book's strength lies in its ability to balance historical context with contemporary analysis. Its treatment of radicalisation is particularly commendable-not as an inevitable outcome of religious belief but as a result of repression, economic failure, and governance breakdowns. * Rana Abhyendra Singh, Religion *