Monday, April 23, 2007

ROUNDTABLE- Role of Moldo in Kyrgyz Society, Aigine CRC, Bishkek, Apr 25, 2007

Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian Studies


ROUNDTABLE- Role of Moldo in Kyrgyz Society, Aigine CRC, Bishkek, Apr 25, 2007

Posted by: Zemfira Inogamova <inogamova@gmail.com>

The Aigine Cultural Research Center in Bishkek presents:

ROUNDTABLE:

"The Role of Moldo (mullah) in Kyrgyz Contemporary Society"

Aigine Cultural Research Center, Bishkek, April 25, 2007.

Roundtable agenda:

- Contradictions between traditional beliefs and Fundamental Islam in
contemporary Kyrgyz society

- Collision of "musulmanchylyk" (muslimness) and "kyrgyzchylyk" (kyrgyzness);

Participants: Moldos (mullahs) & Researchers on Religion and Culture.

Date and time: 10:00-13:00, Wed., April 25, 2007
Venue: Aigine Research Center, Toktogula 93, Bishkek
Language: Kyrgyz/Russian. If requested, translation will be provided

Synopsis:
The question of religion and religious orientation is important in any
society. The official religion in Kyrgyzstan is Islam. However, what
Islam the country inhabitants should practice? Speaking based on
experience of Aigine, that Islam, which:

- Includes worshipping of the sacred sites or excludes it;

- Includes a big variety of rituals or limited to certain rituals
permitted somewhere and by someone;

- Allows traditional healing or forbids it;

- Includes various kinds of spiritual practices or limited to
practices described and approved somewhere and by someone.

The overwhelming majority of pilgrims of Kyrgyzstan considers
themselves as Muslims and do not agree with the opposition of their
"impure" and "distorted" Islam to another "pure" and "normative".
Currently, Aigine cooperates mainly with people practicing cultural
Islam, which conflict-freely combines the ancient values with Islamic
norms. And the Islamic norms are as traditional to them as the
pre-Islamic ones. The differentiation of "Islamic" "pre-Islamic"
itself was erased for people practicing popular Islam.

There are other types of the religious representatives for whom
differentiation of "Islamic" and "pre-Islamic" is an essential one. In
general they conditionally could be named "moldos" (mullah). Aigine
started working with moldos in order to look for ways to consolidate
different types of Muslims in the country.

Aigine Cultural Research was founded in 2004 as a nongovernmental
public fund, dedicated to the research of the cultural heritage and
traditional knowledge of Kyrgyzstan. Aigine mission is to promulgate
little known aspects of the diverse cultural and natural heritage of
Kyrgyzstan, to contribute to the development of cultural heritage
management in Kyrgyzstan and to search for ways to reconcile and
integrate esoteric and scientific approaches to understanding, nature
and culture, tradition and innovation, history and modernity, and west
and east. Aigine emphasize and utilize inter-ethnic, inter-cultural,
inter-religious, and inter-age phenomena to promote tolerance and
mutual understanding among the ethnicities, cultures, religious
groups, and generations of Kyrgyzstan.

Aigine Research Center
str. Toktogula # 93
Tel.: +996 (312) 666966 / 667673
Fax: +996 (312) 667674
E-mail: aigine@yahoogroups.com
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

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