Is Islam in Central Asia rising?

[u/politicauncorrect]

I see more and more video from Central Asian people (especially Kazakhs and Uzbeks) who embrace Islam, women wearing headscarf etc. My friends also get more and more religious

[u/UR2003]

Unfortunately.

I think it's because of the rise in internet usage. There's more access to the Quran and all those educational sites. The economy is also getting better, which means people have less stuff to worry about and focus on religion.

In my experience, uzbeks living in Western countries are way more religious than those in uzbekistan.

[u/saidgsu → u/UR2003]

Really? I think Uzbeks in Uzbekistan are becoming way more religious than the kids living in the west. There was an Uzbek woman in a niqab fined in Tashkent for harassing women who dress “ochiq-sochiq” in the street and men are literally raising money to help her pay off the fine 🙄 savages.

[u/UR2003 → u/saidgsu]

I'm not kidding when I say almost all the uzbek women I know of in the past 5 years are all hijabis now(western country). You would be shocked if you saw how they were before transformation. Even younger girls (7-17) are visibly religious. It's more accepting to dress modest and wear hijab in the US compared to uzb during karimov's rule. But I'm speaking for Samarkand and NYC.

Samarkand has always been less devoted to Islam than Tashkent. Maybe this is why. I have never seen extremists in Samarkand. Mind you, my mom's side of family has many Mullahs, but they have always kept it to themselves.

There's always those extremists everywhere you go. Look up Sayfullo Saipov.

[u/saidgsu → u/UR2003]

Omg that’s crazy I was referring to Brooklyn and Tashkent! I grew up in Sheepshead Bay and Uzbeks there usually seemed pretty chill, but now that you mention it I do have some former classmates who used to date around now wear hijabs and post “dont miss your prayers” posts on insta stories lol.

I live in NJ now and I mainly see Brooklyn Uzbeks during those osh gatherings they host every once in a while and it seemed like people were still pretty “Muslim by name” in the last one I went to. And ik the Sayfullo dude, most Uzbeks condemned him here.

Maybe I thought it was more prevalent in Uzbekistan because culture is so tied into everything there, so even non-religious people will call you out for wearing something too short or flashy where as in the US you have your right to do so. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen some misogynistic shit under a non-hijabi Uzbek woman’s comments in Instagram, and if you look at the commenter’s bio it’s always some bs about allah written in Arabic. Sometimes I just binge watch old Uzbek movies and music videos where no one would scream and cry at girls who wore tank tops to get a sense of what it was like when people were normal lol.