ABSTRACT
Islam was stronger during the Soviet era and weaker in the post-Soviet era than has generally been recognized. Another source of encouragement for interest in Islam that is unique to recent years was made possible by the technology of consumer electronics: radio broadcasts and audio- and videocassettes from abroad. Some in the West accepted that interpretation and the Russian response. For hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Tajikistan, the politics of Islamophobia brought persecution and the hardships of exile. The new platitude was that Islam was the sole, overriding concern of most Central Asians outside the ruling elite. It became commonplace in the Soviet Union, the successor states, and abroad to assume that to be a Muslim was to be an advocate of radical Islamicizing politics. The term Islamic revival should be used with caution, given the long-term efforts of many ordinary Muslims to maintain their faith.
