The Tajiks - Islam in Central Asia (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
The majority of Tajiks practice Sunni Islam. The exception lies in the Pamir Mountains, where Ismailism is in the majority. Sufism is present predominantly in urban centers (such as the capital, Dushanbe).
"Long before the Soviet era, rural Central Asians, including inhabitants of what became Tajikistan, had access to their own holy places... Under Soviet regimes, Tajiks used the substantial remainder of this rural, popular Islam to continue at least some aspects of the teaching and practice of their faith after the activities of urban-based Islamic institutions were curtailed. "
"Islam also played a key political role for the regime in power in the early 1990s. The communist old guard evoked domestic and international fears that fundamentalist Muslims would destabilize the Tajikistani government when that message was expedient in fortifying the hard-liners' position against opposition forces in the civil war. However, the Nabiyev regime also was willing to represent itself as an ally of Iran's Islamic republic while depicting the Tajik opposition as unfaithful Muslims."
(Source: Library of Congress Country Studies: Tajikistan)
