The development of the republic of Kyrgyzstan has been
happening in a way, which allowed different nationalities and religious groups
co-exist with each other peacefully. But as they say now, there were only two
major religions - Islam and Christianity. The new time, which fundamentally
changed the social environment, brought the new faith to Central Asia, the new
religious organizations. The population of Kyrgyzstan joins those new religious
movements more often, even though they have always been the true Islam
believers.
A young man from the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek, adopted Christianity. His
relatives and friends were doing their best to make him not do it, but it was
all in vain, so they gave up and left the guy alone. Nobody wonders, what he
does now. Such occasions are not really numerous in the republic, so they are
not making the situation grow tense, no conflicts happen, but they do cause
certain difficulties.
The relatives of one Kyrgyz man could not choose the way to bury him, since he
had turned to a Christian short before his death. A minister of one of the
Protestant churches said that there were more and more Kyrgyz nationals joining
their movement. It has recently become evident that a certain part of the
Kyrgyz population preferred the Protestant religion, pushing the traditional
Islam and orthodox religions into the background. This phenomenon is typical
not only for Kyrgyzstan, but for Kazakhstan and even Uzbekistan.
Experts think that the establishment of the open society made a path for the
new religions. The people of the post-Soviet countries were given a chance to
choose and compare. Bermet Malikova, a local journalist, is sure that the
protestant religion is not bad for the Kyrgyz youth. She agrees with those, who
say that this religion teaches both the practical things and the spiritual
purification. Malikova also believes that the September tragedy in the USA can
make a lot of young people alienate from Islam - those people, who were doubtful,
what religion to believe. A lot of people in Kyrgyzstan think that the terror
attack in America caused a lot of damage to Islam, since it was performed by
the Muslim fanatics.
Yury Razgulayev
PRAVDA.Ru
Bishkek
Kyrgyzstan