Hizmet Movement in Central Asia: Comparative Studies of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

Abstract

The issue of religious radicalism has been highly securitized or simply over politicized by the majority of the governments of Central Asian states. As a result, the security and stability became among the priority issues to deal with. Central Asian governments quickly adopted security policies which were intended to control the activities of the independent religious movements. In certain Central Asian states such as Uzbekistan, the consequences of these policies were the restriction of the any kind of religious movement which is not under the control of the state, even if it is apolitical actor. Among them was a Hizmet movement. However, while closely analyzing it can be observed that the movement is very apolitical, peaceful, civil movement whose activities help to improve the life of people in terms of providing modern education, student dormitories, health care, job places and numerous other types of developmental and humanitarian assistance. Uzbek government justified its actions that the movement is teaching radical Islamic education in the country. Very interestingly the same movement is not blacklisted in the next door Kyrgyzstan and operates freely. The primary focus of this work is to analyze the objectives behind labeling the Hizmet movement as a security threat in Uzbekistan and not in Kyrgyzstan. It examines factors such as educational activities of the movement and its contradiction with the national ideologies of the foregoing two Central Asian states, the development of independent civil societies and other political and economic motives behind the restriction.