Psychology and Solidarity in the Religious Policy of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

• In Event: 262 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. State Control and Religious Resistance

Abstract

After more than a decade of laissez-faire policy on religion, the former soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have rapidly enacted a regulatory framework that restricts the activities of groups deemed "non-traditional," "destructive" and "extremist." However, this emerging normative framework deviates from the historical record of “traditional” religious practice in the region, and often targets small religious groups that have little social or political impact. Why do these regimes censure or ban marginal religious groups? Given the disconnect between the normative and empirical applications of "tradition" by these regimes, what factors distinguish heterodox religious movements from an orthodoxy that is itself only being built and in many ways still nascent? Although debate continues among scholars of Eurasia as to why the secular governments of post-Soviet states are becoming increasingly restrictive of religious practice, a distinct line of reasoning is emerging within the regimes themselves: A growing psychological bent in the religious policies of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan portrays religion as a stimulus whose impact on individual psyches can either enhance or degrade solidarity among the citizenry. Drawing on a dataset of laws, court rulings, and expert commentary that covers the past decade of religious policy in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, I argue that in the wake of Soviet nationalities policy, which drew a strong line between ethnic belonging and political enfranchisement, this psychological approach serves to delegitimize any social motives for conversion to a new religion, such as disaffection with the received profile of nationality.

Author

• David Levy, Boston University