The tensions between Islam and the West have a long history going back to the Crusades. The terrorist attacks that marked the post-9/11 era have polarized and simplified this narrative where the War on Terror is mostly interpreted as “War on Muslims” since Muslims are seen as a threat to secularization and globalization centralized in the West, particularly the United States (Renner 2017, 39-53). Post 9/11 events have marked religiosity, read as Islam, a synonym for radicalization. Interpretation, stereotypes and representation of Muslims equal the justification of and solution to the War on Terror. New Islamist movements from the 1990s to the 2010s in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf countries have triggered the same narrative in the Central Asia. West and the Central Asian governments seem unanimous in their (mis)conception of Islam though the “re-Islamization” of Central Asia in post-Soviet Russia as mostly rooted in the revival of tradition, national heritage and culture rather than any political agenda. The celebration of Sufism stands in sharp contrast with the strict monitoring of religious practices in Central Asia. Needless to say, not all Islamic activities in this region are apolitical. Muslim-nationalist ideology in Tajikistan (Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan [IRPT]) fought for dominance over USSR-supported parties. The invocation of Islamic laws, Shari’a, by a part of the Kyrgyz and Tajik populations revealed their demand for social justice and political honesty.

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