ABSTRACT
Far away from the developments in the Middle East, Central Asians, as part of the Soviet Union, struggled to find their own way to define Islamic activism. Until the mid-1990s, this activism has represented bravery and values that opposed the communist giant. Today, and in a climate of a totalitarian regime that strictly monitors religious expressions, young people experience the religion of Islam as a source from which to draw values that often go beyond spiritual inspiration. In this context, jihad has developed along with forms of “militant goodness” that react to local political events and increasingly also to other, global, events. This chapter explores the use of jihad by young people who express with it their militant goodness. The article is less interested in a theological debate of the term than in the practices and discourses that people relate to jihad.
