ABSTRACT
The upsurge of the Islamic movement in Central Asia over the last two decades has been a result of large-scale Islamic activities which include the construction of numerous mosques, spread of religious education, reinstatement of Islamic law in some areas of social and private life, activities of religious organizations and parties, anti-government activities on the part of Islamic groups in opposition to government, activities of armed extremist groups, terrorist acts which involve suicide bombers and, finally, participation of legitimate Islamic parties such as Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in the government of secular states. The usage of popular terms such as “Revivalism,” “Islamic Renaissance,”
“Re-Islamization,” “Secondary Islamization,” and the spread of the term “fundamentalism” has been a matter of debate among researchers.1 Animated discussions also go on as to whether the revival of Islam in Central Asia was a result of independent spiritual, social and political development of the region or was a phenomenon imposed from the outside. Similarly divergent positions are held by researchers with regard to the question whether Soviet Central Asia can be considered a part of the unified Islamic world or whether it was developing autonomously from other parts of the Islamic world but within atheistic boundaries of the communist experiment.2
