"The Localization of the Transnational Tablighi Jama’at Network in Kyrgyzstan: Reconsidering Traditional and Islamic Practices"

Crossroads Asia Lecture by Visiting Fellow Mukaram Toktogulova today at ZMO Berlin

The Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) transnational network that emerged in India and Pakistan in the early twentieth century began to expand its missionary activities to Central Asia in the 1990s. Its aim was to bring post-Soviet Muslim society back to Islam through a revival of religious practice by travelling lay mis- sionary groups with a “davat” programme, a local term for “da’wa” (mission/invitation). Although the Tablighi Jama’at is currently banned in all Central Asian countries and Russia, with the exception of Kyrgyzstan, the movement has gradu- ally increased its impact on the region. In particular, Tablighi activities have attracted the interest of Muslim youth in Kyr- gyzstan. Indeed, 6242 “davatchys” (Tablighi activists) carried out 40-day journeys in the different regions of Kyrgyzstan in 2012. This presentation aims to examine the localization of Tablighi practices in Kyrgyzstan and the contested discourses around it. In so doing, the talk explores how TJ discourse and practice have been shaped by local socio-cultural experi- ences and how traditional cultural and religious practices are reconsidered in a new way.

Mukaram Toktogulova is a visiting research fellow of the Crossroads Asia competence network, currently based at Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin. She teaches cultural anthro- pology at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyztan. Her main research interests are Islam in Central Asia, sacred sites in Kyrgyzstan, language ideologies and oral tradition of Kyrgyz People in the post-Soviet period. Her cur- rent research focuses on the development of the transna- tional Tablighi Jama’at network in Kyrgyzstan. Together with Atpaeva, Egemberdieva, she published Mazar Worship in Kyr- gyzstan: Rituals and Practitioners in Talas (Aigine Research Center, Bishkek, 2008).

Time and location: July 4th at 6 pm

Zentrum Moderner Orient, Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin