ABSTRACT
Along with the Muslim countries of North Africa, the Middle East, and Eurasia, until recently the Muslim Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan had one of the world’s highest annual population increases. While Islam appears to play some part as a unifying cultural influence here, we need to beware of a Eurocentric, neo-colonial tendency to view it as the sole cause of high birth rates, leaving socio-economic and political factors out of consideration.
