Article Sidebar

Submitted
June 10, 2025
Accepted
August 30, 2025
Published
August 31, 2025
Download
PDF
Statistic
Read Counter : 345 Download : 42

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Main Article Content

Abstract

There has always been a fundamental tension between Islam and secularism, as well as between Islam and nationalism, during the critical early stages of nation and state-building in the modern Islamic world. Kazakhstan is no exception in this regard. As the Kazakh state reconstructs a secular national identity while facing a growing Muslim population, it faces the same challenges of negotiating the relationship between Islam and secularism and reconciling Islam with its secular governance model as other nations. In the post-Soviet context, Islam is not merely a localized socio-cultural phenomenon but is increasingly interconnected with global Islamic movements. This dynamic often creates friction with local traditions and official nation-building policies. This paper analyzes the interplay between Islam, securitization, and secularism in post-Soviet Kazakhstan and their impact on the implementation of restrictive policies toward religion. Through discourse analysis, this study examines how Islamic revival is framed as a security concern and how this framing informs restrictive state policies. It argues that securitization reinforces assertive secularism by narrowing the scope of acceptable religious expression and legitimizing expanded state control. Drawing on policy documents, media narratives, and scholarly discourse, the research highlights the historical and political legacies that continue to shape Kazakhstan’s approach to religion. The study calls for a more nuanced policy framework that distinguishes between ideological extremism and legitimate religious practice, ensuring both national security and freedom of belief.

Keywords

Islam in Kazakhstan National Identity National Security Religious Revival Secularism Securitization State Policy

Article Details

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Damira Sikhimbayeva, Dinara Zhanabayeva, Toktarov Ermek, Bakytzhan Shynar

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

How to Cite
Sikhimbayeva, D. ., Zhanabayeva, D., Toktarov, Y. ., & Bakytzhan, S. . (2025). Islam, Securitization, and Secularism in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Negotiating Identity and State Policy. Millah: Journal of Religious Studies, 24(2), 907–936. https://doi.org/10.20885/millah.vol24.iss2.ar11
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

References

  1. Akan, M. (2023). Do we need a radical redefinition of secularism? A critique of Charles Taylor. Politics and Religion, 17(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048323000287

  2. Akbarzadeh, S. (2018). The lure of Islamism in Central Asia. In M. Woodward & R. Lukens-Bull (Eds.), Handbook of contemporary Islam and Muslim lives (pp. 521–533). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73653-2_24-2

  3. Akhmetova, E. (2018). Islam and the development of democratic opposition in Central Asia. ICR Journal, 9(4), 74–91. https://doi.org/10.52282/icr.v9i4.95

  4. Balci, B. (2021). Islamic renewal in Central Asia. In R. Isaacs & E. Marat (Eds.), Routledge handbook of contemporary Central Asia (pp. 411–421). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429057977-35/islamic-renewal-central-asia-bayram-balci

  5. Balzacq, T. (2005). The three faces of securitization: Political agency, audience and context. European Journal of International Relations, 11(2), 171–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066105052960

  6. Berger, P. L. (2014). The many altars of modernity: Toward a paradigm for religion in a pluralist age. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516477

  7. Bouchard, G., & Taylor, C. (2008). Building the future, a time for reconciliation: Abridged report. Gouvernement du Quebec.

  8. Burghart, D. L., & Sabonis-Helf, T. (Eds.). (2018). Central Asia in the era of sovereignty: The return of Tamerlane? Lexington Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781666987904

  9. Buzan, B., & Wæver, O. (2003). Regions and powers: The structure of international security (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491252

  10. Castle, J. J., & Schoettmer, P. L. (2019). Secularism and politics. In J. J. Castle & P. L. Schoettmer, Oxford research encyclopedia of politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.663

  11. Chatterjee, S. (2024). Beyond borders: Navigating non-traditional security challenges in Central Asia. Indonesian Journal of Social Sciences, 16(2), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.20473/ijss.v16i2.54372

  12. Clay, E. (2000). The Church of the Transfiguring Mother of God and its role in Russian nationalist discourse, 1984—991. Nova Religio, 3(2), 320–349. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2000.3.2.320

  13. Cornell, S. E., Starr, S. F., & Tucker, J. (2017). Religion and the secular state in Kazakhstan. Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

  14. Farrell, W. B. (2019). Fragmentation, frustrated revolt, and off-shore opportunity: A comparative examination of Jihadi mobilization in Central Asia and the South Caucasus (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) [Doctoral thesis, University of Maine]. DigitalCommons@UMaine. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/3118

  15. Goldstein, W. S. (2022). On the religious state, the secular state, and the religion-neutral state. Critical Research on Religion, 10(1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032221081837

  16. Heathershaw, J., & Megoran, N. (2011). Contesting danger: A new agenda for policy and scholarship on Central Asia. International Affairs, 87(3), 589–612. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2011.00992.x

  17. Horan, D. P. (2014). A Rahnerian theological response to Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. New Blackfriars, 95(1055), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12027

  18. Horsman, S. (2005). Themes in official discourses on terrorism in Central Asia. Third World Quarterly, 26(1), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/0143659042000322982

  19. Hunter, I. (2011). Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age and secularization in Early Modern Germany. Modern Intellectual History, 8(3), 621–646. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479244311000370

  20. Karimov, N., Karimova, R.-B., Massimova, K., & Khajiyeva, G. (2024). Revitalizing faith: An inquiry into political Sufism and religious continuity in contemporary Kazakhstan. Frontiers in Sociology, 9, 1447966. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1447966

  21. Kettell, S. (2019). Secularism and religion. In S. Kettell, Oxford research encyclopedia of politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.898

  22. Kevlihan, R. (2016). Insurgency in Central Asia: A case study of Tajikistan. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 27(3), 417–439. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2016.1151656

  23. Khalid, A. (2014). Islam after communism: Religion and politics in Central Asia. University of California Press.

  24. Koser, K. (2016). International migration: A very short introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198753773.001.0001

  25. Laruelle, M. (2018). Being Muslim in Central Asia: Practices, politics, and identities. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004357242

  26. Laruelle, M., & Peyrouse, S. (2006). Asie Centrale, la dérive autoritaire [Central Asia, the drift toward authoritarianism]. Fondation pour la. https://archives.frstrategie.org/web/documents/publications/notes/2006/200623.pdf

  27. Lemon, E. (2018). Critical approaches to security in Central Asia: An introduction. Central Asian Survey, 37(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2018.1435760

  28. Lemon, E. (2021). Securitisation of religion in Central Asia. In R. Isaacs & E. Marat (Eds.), Routledge handbook of contemporary Central Asia (pp. 422–436). Routledge.

  29. Lemon, E. (2022). Governing extremism through communities in Tajikistan. In D. W. Montgomery (Ed.), Central Asia: Contexts for understanding (pp. 594–598). University of Pittsburgh Press. https://balticworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/BW_2023_3_Lemon.pdf

  30. Lemon, E., & Thibault, H. (2018). Counter-extremism, power and authoritarian governance in Tajikistan. Central Asian Survey, 37(1), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2017.1336155

  31. Martínez-Torrón, J., & Durham, W. C. (2012). Religion and the secular state. In K. B. Brown & D. V. Snyder (Eds.), General Reports of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law/Rapports Généraux du XVIIIème Congrès de l’Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé (pp. 1–28). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_1

  32. Matveeva, A. (2018). Radicalisation and violent extremism in Kyrgyzstan: On the way to the caliphate? The RUSI Journal, 163(1), 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071847.2018.1453013

  33. Matveeva, A., & Giustozzi, A. (2018). The Central Asian militants: Cannon fodder of global Jihadism or revolutionary vanguard? Small Wars & Insurgencies, 29(2), 189–206. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592318.2018.1433472

  34. Monastireva-Ansdell, E. (2021). Electricity within: Islam, pre-Islamic traditions and secular forms of belief in contemporary Kyrgyz cinema. Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 15(2), 153–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503132.2021.1906009

  35. Montgomery, D. W., & Heathershaw, J. (2016). Islam, secularism and danger: A reconsideration of the link between religiosity, radicalism and rebellion in Central Asia. Religion, State and Society, 44(3), 192–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2016.1220177

  36. Montgomery, D. W., Heathershaw, J., Khalid, A., Lemon, E., & Epkenhans, T. (2016). Researching Islam, security, and the state in Central Asia: A round table discussion. Review of Middle East Studies, 50(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/rms.2016.69

  37. Mustafayeva, A., Paltore, Y., Pernekulova, M., & Meirim, I. (2023). Islamic higher education as a part of Kazakhs’ cultural revival. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 10(3), 103–127. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1515

  38. Nolte, A. J. (2025). Assertive secularism, fear of religion and political mobilization: Proposing a comparison between the United States and Turkey. Religions, 16(6), 754. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060754

  39. Olcott, M. B. (1995). The Kazakhs. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University Press.

  40. Olcott, M. B. (2002). Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled promise. Carnegie Endowment.

  41. Olimova, S., & Olimov, M. (2014). Public opinion, democracy, and authoritarianism in Central Asia. Central Asia and the Caucasus, 15(2), 142–160. https://ca-c.org

  42. Omelicheva, M. Y. (2011). Islam in Kazakhstan: A survey of contemporary trends and sources of securitization. Central Asian Survey, 30(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2011.567069

  43. Omidi, A., Khan, K. H., & Schortz, O. (2024). Explaining the vicious circle of political repression and Islamic radicalism in Central Asia. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1), 2350115. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2350115

  44. Panchenko, A. (2004). New religious movements and the study of folklore: The Russian case. Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 28, 111–128. https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2004.28.movement

  45. Peyrouse, S. (2007). Islam in Central Asia: National specificities and Postsoviet globalisation. Religion, State and Society, 35(3), 245–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637490701458676

  46. Rasanayagam, J. (2010). Islam in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: The morality of experience. Cambridge University Press.

  47. Rohtmets, P., & Ringvee, R. (2013). Religious revival and the political activity of religious communities in Estonia during the process of liberation and the collapse of the Soviet Union 1985–1991. Religion, State and Society, 41(4), 355–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2013.855059

  48. Roy, O. (2000). The New Central Asia: The creation of nations. NYU Press.

  49. Roy, O. (2013). Secularism and Islam: The theological predicament. The International Spectator, 48(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2013.759365

  50. Scherer, M. (2014). Secularism. In The encyclopedia of political thought (pp. 3368–3380). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118474396.wbept0922

  51. Schwab, W. (2011). Establishing an Islamic niche in Kazakhstan: Musylman Publishing House and its publications. Central Asian Survey, 30(2), 227–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2011.565229

  52. Schwab, W. (2019). The rhetoric of Islamic debate in Kazakhstani mass media. Central Asian Affairs, 6(2–3), 166–188. https://doi.org/10.1163/22142290-00602005

  53. Seifert, A. C. (2011). The Islamic factor and the OSCE stabilization strategy in its Euro-Asian Region: Must and can the Islamic factor be a part of the OSCE’s co-operative security and stabilization strategies? (CORE Working Paper No. 4). Centre for OSCE Research. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/20123/WP4EN.pdf

  54. Seifert, A. C. (2012). The political process in Central Asia and the system question. In OSCE Yearbook 2011: Yearbook on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) (pp. 181–198). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. https://www.ifsh.de/file-CORE/documents/yearbook/english/11/Seifert-en.pdf

  55. Somzhurek, B. Z., Yessengaliyeva, A. M., Medeubayeva, Zh. M., & Makangali, B. K. (2018). Central Asia and regional security. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 51(2), 161–171. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48610522

  56. Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

  57. Tazmini, G. (2001). The Islamic revival in Central Asia: A potent force or a misconception? Central Asian Survey, 20(1), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634930120055460

  58. Thibault, H. (2020). Political Islam in Central Asia: From religious revival to securitization. In S. Akbarzadeh (Ed.), Routledge handbook of political Islam (2nd ed., pp. 139–154). Routledge.

  59. Thibault, H. (2022). Where did all the wahhabis go? The evolution of threat in Central Asian scholarship. Europe-Asia Studies, 74(2), 288–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2021.1999908

  60. Toilybekova, E., Zhusupbekova, M., Zhumagulova, S., & Abubakirova, G. (2024). Legal regulation of confessional relations in Kazakhstan. Pharos Journal of Theology, 105(3). https://doi.org/10.46222/pharosjot.105.37

  61. Tucker, N. (2015). Domestic shapers of Eurasia’s Islamic futures: Sheikh, scholar, society, and the state. In T. W. Simons (Ed.), Islam in Eurasia: A policy volume (pp. 77–92). Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

  62. Tungatova, U., & Kurmanaliyeva, A. (2023). Prevention of religious extremism in Kazakhstan. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 13(2), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.36941/jesr-2023-0033

  63. Tuyakbayev, S. (2003). Security issues in Central Asia and foreign security policies of Kazakhastan and Uzbekistan [UNISCI Discussion Paper]. Unidad de Investigación sobre Seguridad y Cooperación. http://www.unisci.es/security-issues-in-central-asia-and-foreign-security-policies-of-kazakhastan-and-uzbekistan/

  64. Ubiria, G. (2016). Soviet nation-building in Central Asia: The making of the Kazakh and Uzbek nations. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

  65. Ungureanu, C., & Monti, P. (2019). Charles Taylor on recognition, inclusive secularism and religion. In R. Sandberg, N. Doe, B. Kane, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Research handbook on interdisciplinary approaches to law and religion (pp. 168–191). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784714857.00018

  66. Wæver, O. (1995). Identity, integration and security: Solving the sovereignty puzzle in E.U. studies. Journal of International Affairs, 48(2), 389–431. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24357597

  67. Wæver, O., Buzan, B., & Kelstrup, M. (1993). Identity, migration, and the new security agenda in Europe. St. Martin’s Press.

  68. Yashlavskii, A. (2022). Радикальный Исламизм как дестабилизирующий фактор для Казахстана [Radical Islamism as a Destabilizing Factor for Kazakhstan]. Russia and New States of Eurasia, 2, 67–79. https://doi.org/10.20542/2073-4786-2022-2-67-79

  69. Yemelianova, G. M. (2014). Islam, national identity and politics in contemporary Kazakhstan. Asian Ethnicity, 15(3), 286–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2013.847643

  70. Zhussipbek, G., Achilov, D., & Nagayeva, Z. (2020). Some common patterns of Islamic revival in Post-Soviet Central Asia and challenges to develop human rights and inclusive society. Religions, 11(11), 548. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110548

No Related Submission Found