Islam in Kazakhstan

Kazakhs make up over half of the total population, and other ethnic groups of Muslim background include Uzbeks, Uyghurs and Tatars.

According to the Constitution, The Republic of Kazakhstan proclaims itself as a democratic, secular, legal and social state whose highest values are a person, his life, rights, and freedoms.

Although Kazakhs identify with their Muslim heritage, religious practices are generally very moderate, and displays of religiosity, such as the wearing of the headscarf or daily attendance in mosques, are rare.

[6] According to a survey by Central Asian Affairs, Kazakhs who self-identify as Muslims rose from 79% in 2007 to 93% in 2012, however the share of people praying daily and attending mosque weekly were found to have declined during the same period, from 22.94% to 18.20%.

The initial push to spread was given by the Battle of Talas in 751 AD, where nomads of Karluk Yabghu state allied themselves with Abbasid Arabs to stop the Chinese Tan dynasty advance.

Only in 1321, ruler of the Horde - Özbeg Khan publicly converts to Islam by Ibn Abdul Hamid, a Sunni Sufi Bukharan sayyid and sheikh of the Yassawi order.

[14] Such attempts included methods of eulogizing pre-Islamic historical figures and imposing a sense of inferiority by sending Kazakhs to highly elite Russian military institutions.

[13] In more recent times, Kazakhs have gradually employed determined effort in revitalizing Islamic religious institutions after the fall of the Soviet Union.

For example, the Kazakh Foreign Affairs Minister, Marat Tazhin, recently emphasized that Kazakhstan attaches importance to the use of "positive potential Islam, learning of its history, culture and heritage.

[23] With an eye toward the Islamic governments of nearby Iran and Afghanistan, the writers of the 1993 constitution specifically forbade religious political parties.

The president's first trip to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, which occurred in 1994, was part of an itinerary that also included a visit to Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.