The localisation of the transnational Tablighi Jama’at in Kyrgyzstan: structures, concepts, practices and metaphors

Abstract

The transnational Tablighi Jama’at (TJ), which emerged and expanded outward from India and Pakistan in the early and mid-twentieth century, started to extend its missionary activities into Central Asia in the course of the 1990s. Its aim was to revive religious practice amongst post-Soviet Muslims by travelling and spreading its message through lay missionary groups which pursued a dawat (preaching) programme, the local term for da’wa, namely an invitation to prayer. The TJ focused on an ‘internal mission’, striving to bring Muslims back to their own faith by reconnecting them with Islamic rituals, practices and beliefs. Although, with the exception of Kyrgyzstan, the Tablighi Jama’at is currently banned in four Central Asian countries and Russia, the movement has gradually increased its impact throughout the Central Asian region and has contributed significantly to the emergence of ‘alternate globalities’ (Reetz 2010b). The paper discusses the modes, concepts and consequences of the localisation of the transnational Tablighi Jama’at in Kyrgyzstan, where it is shaped by socio-cultural and political conditions in response to local needs. Furthermore, it explores Islamic ideas, sources and images, all of which are promoted through the Tablighi Jama’at network in Kyrgyzstan and beyond. Based on local field research, the paper focuses mainly on two groups, namely male Tablighi preachers, dawatchys, and their female Tablighi companions, masturat, by analysing their practices, stories, narratives and metaphors and discussing how Islamic and traditional cultural practices are being recovered and reconsidered in a new way.