This memo hopes to revisit the old Islamism/democratization paradigm in Central Asia and to provide some new avenues for debate. It sets out from three hypotheses:
- Generational changes underway in the region are giving rise to new ways of formulating the place of Islam in the public space;
- these new ways are vastly in favor of giving Islam an increased role, whether Islam is understood as an alternative ideology to the post-Soviet consensus still in place, or as a social practice to rival the operations of ruling regimes; and
- these new kinds of Islamism and their proponents will likely be called upon to play a role in the upcoming broader ideological diversity of Central Asian public spaces. […]
Revisiting Islamism: A Factor for Democratization in Central Asia?
PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 298
By Marlene Laruelle
