United States Institute of Peace

Since the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the constitutionally secular states of Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — have been trying to manage the friction between religious freedom and religious revival.

Under Soviet rule, Central Asians citizens had little exposure to Islam or any other religion. In the absence of qualified religious seminaries that can promote religious tolerance and pluralism, Central Asians have been exposed to the radical ideologies of global jihadist groups — largely through social media — that promoted hate through violence. Extremist Islamic groups have filled the vacuum of information about Islam, capitalizing on young people’s yearning to identify with and understand more about Islam in the post-Soviet era. 

During ISIS’s peak in the mid-2010s, an estimated 5,000 Central Asians were recruited to fight for the terrorist group. ISIS’s territorial defeat in 2019 put a dent in their recruitment capacity. But terror attacks in recent months by Islamic State affiliates are a somber reminder of the group’s capability and reach. ISIS-K is widely reported to be led by Islamist fighters from Central Asia, primarily Tajik citizens.

In response to a rise in extremism, Central Asian governments, including Uzbekistan, have sought to enable mainstream Islamic practice as a way to close space for extremist variants. The Imam Bukhari Center International Scientific Research in Samarkhand, Uzbekistan, is perhaps the most prominent example of this transformation. 

Rather than diminish or underplay the long historical role that Islam has played in shaping Central Asian culture, the Uzbek government has invested tens of millions of dollars to turn a memorial shrine of Bukhari — one of Islam’s earliest and most prominent scholars — into a center of learning for the region and the world on the relationship between Islamic teachings and tolerance.

Al-Bukhari was a ninth century Islamic scholar who, in his book, “Sahih al-Bukhari,” verified and collected the most authentic of the prophet Mohammed’s sayings, known as hadiths. Muslims regard this collection of hadiths as the most important book after the Quran.

Countering Extremism in Uzbekistan

Over the past five years, USIP and the Imam Bukhari Center in have partnered on a series of capacity building trainings for the center’s faculty to support the development of an outreach program entitled “Enlightenment Against Intolerance.” This work is intended to complement the Uzbek government’s effort to counter extremism and promote pluralism.

The trainings focused on shifting scholars away from lecturing their audiences — whether students in a classroom or community members in a meeting — and toward engaging in conversations that promote self-awareness and an understanding of Islam as a religion of tolerance. USIP’s training was not geared toward teaching religion. Rather, the focus was on self-identity and understanding the “other” aligned with the center’s emphasis on pluralism. USIP trainers also worked with the Imam Bukhari Center scholars on techniques of teaching and training that make theological subjects more relatable.

In the early trainings with the scholars, attempts to engage them in conversations about their identities and about gender dynamics were met with resistance and statements such as “It’s different here” and “Everyone accepts each other.” Participants expressed disinterest in discussions about identity because they claimed such differences didn’t matter to them. Over time, however, a trusted relationship developed between USIP, the facilitators and scholars — transforming how they received and participated in conversations around identity. The scholars began to appreciate the importance of empathy and of listening to each other’s stories rather than lecturing about ideas.

“The trainings are self-revelation sessions. [We] learned to put ourselves in the middle and look at ourselves from the side,” observed Barot Amonov, head of the center’s Pilgrimage Tourism Development Department. 

During the final training in spring 2024, the scholars put what they had learned into a two-day training for university students on being an ethical Muslim leader. The scholars’ personal and professional transformation was evident in the way they approached the students. These highly respected Islamic scholars shared openly with students that they were learning from USIP and that their engagement with the students was part of their training. Their humility and honesty lowered the instructor-student barrier, allowing for deeper reflection and sharing. A female student shared that they appreciated the training because it allowed them to have conversations about who they are and how they engage with others in the world as leaders — topics they don't have the opportunity to discuss with each other.

Early conversations around gender that were met with resistance looked quite different during the training for students. Yuldoshkhon Isaev, the head of the Manuscripts and Museum Department, noticed that all of the female students were seated on one side of the room while all of the male students were on the other side and encouraged them to change seats to reduce any gender divide. Shukrullo Umarov, the head of the center’s Religious and Educational Events Department, noted while facilitating that he had only heard from male students and invited the female students to share their thoughts. While seemingly small observations, this awareness of gender dynamics in the room revealed an attentiveness that contributed to fostering a more equitable learning experience for students.

In reflecting on their growth throughout USIP’s trainings, Umarov commented on the importance of connecting their message to the lives of their audience: “To explain education material in relation to real life and to take into account the opinion of the student and always encourage them.” The scholars’ understanding of what it means to be an educator shifted from having all of the answers to posing questions that allow students to share responses and formulate their own conclusions. In so doing, they transformed learning from unidirectional (instructor to learner) to multidirectional (learner to learner and learner to instructor). “I realized that one should never stop learning,” said Bayozkhon Makhmudov, a researcher at the center.

Beyond these trainings in Uzbekistan, USIP has been engaged in supporting local and international efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism in Central Asia through the State Department’s C5+1 Security Initiative.

As a new wave of radicalization and extremism hits Central Asia, the scholars trained by USIP have already started using what they have learned to engage community members in difficult conversations about religious pluralism in Uzbekistan and will continue to do so with the more than 80,000 community members they engage each year through their outreach program. This effort can serve as a model for scholars in other regions throughout the country and help counter the narratives that groups like ISIS-K use to recruit disaffected young people.

Alison Milofsky is the founder and president at Peace in Praxis. Milofsky designed and facilitated the series of trainings for religious scholars.