Where Did All the Wahhabis Go? The Evolution of Threat in Central Asian Scholarship

Abstract

This essay addresses discursive practices in the literature on Islam in Central Asia and highlights a recent shift from Wahhabism to Salafism as the main ‘non-traditional’ movement perceived to pose a threat. This shift is the result of a postimperial understanding of religious dynamics as well as the standardisation of global security discourses. Relying on a survey of academic journals and Central Asian media that demonstrates a recent sharp increase in the use of ‘Salafism’ rather than ‘Wahhabism’, the essay questions hierarchies of knowledge production and offers solutions to avoid the pitfalls of theoretical instrumentalisation in Central Asian scholarship.

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Notes

1 Global Terrorism Index 2019: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism (Sydney, Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019, p. 14).

2 Global Terrorism Index 2019: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism (Sydney, Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019, p. 42).

3 Global Terrorism Index 2019: Measuring the Impact of Terrorism (Sydney, Institute for Economics & Peace, 2019, p. 37). Obviously, there are a lot more people living in MENA than in Central Asia, but the ratio death/per number of habitants remains extremely low in Central Asia.

4 Kazakhstan declared independence only on 16 December 1991.

5 ‘The Crusade Against the Wahhabis’, The Economist, 2 July 1998, pp. 36–7.

6 ‘An Atmosphere of Quick Repression', Human Rights Watch, 1 December 2008, available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/01/atmosphere-quiet-repression/freedom-religion-assembly-and-expression-kazakhstan, accessed 10 November 2021.

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8 ‘Zhusan Operation: 595 Kazakhstanis Repatriated from Syria’, KazInform, 6 February 2020, available at: https://www.inform.kz/en/article/3611674, accessed 3 June 2021.

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11 In 2016, the Muftiyate also supported the Ministry of Education’s controversial decision to forbid hijabs in schools, which created resentment from some parents who threatened to remove girls from schools (Zhursin 2018).

12 This is a traditional white high-top hat worn with a white shawl that covers the hair and neck.

13 This Arabic word refers to the private parts of a women’s body that must be covered by clothing.

14 ‘DUMK v otnoshenii musul'manskogo platka’, Azan, 23 March 2013, available at: https://azan.kz/ahbar/read/fetva-dumk-v-otnoshenii-musulmanskogo-platka-2419, accessed 10 November 2021.

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16 It was renamed the Ministry of Social Development in April 2018.

17 See, the website of the Committee for Legal Statistics and Special Accounts, available at: https://qamqor.gov.kz/portal/page/portal/POPageGroup/Services/Pravstat, accessed 8 November 2021.

18 ‘Understanding Islamic Radicalization in Central Asia’, The Diplomat, 20 January 2017, available at: https://thediplomat.com/2017/01/understanding-islamic-radicalization-in-central-asia/, accessed 3 June 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hélène Thibault

Hélène Thibault, Assistant Professor of Political Science, School of Sciences and Humanities, Nazarbayev University, 53, Kabanbay Batyr, Block 8, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan. Email: [email protected]