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
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
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