13 - Сommunity Intolerance, State Repression and Forced Displacement in the Kyrgyz Republic

Summary

Abstract

This study aims to understand how repressive state policy and community intolerance towards religious minority groups results in their migration from their home villages and towns to larger cities within the country and abroad. More specifically, this chapter studies the repression and migration experiences of ethnic Kyrgyz who converted to Christianity. The research is based on the analysis of news archives and interviews with 23 representatives of religious minority groups and with ten representatives of local Muslim communities conducted between February and May 2020.

Keywords: migration, internal migration, intolerance, conversion, repression, Kyrgyz

Introduction

The link between religion and migration in Central Asia is usually analysed in relation to the radicalisation of local Muslims and their passage to zones of conflict in the Middle East. Authors such as Noah Tucker and Edward Lemon claim that many Central Asians experience radicalisation when they work in Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey as labour migrants and that they travel to the zones of conflicts to join such groups as ISIS from these countries. According to these authors, there are a number of factors related to migration that make Central Asian migrants vulnerable to radicalisation. This chapter, however, has a different focus: it looks at the phenomenon of the forced migration of religious minority groups caused by religious intolerance and discrimination. More specifically, it studies the state persecution andcommunity pressure on such groups as Protestant Christians and local converts to Christianity.

Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan has witnessed a significant change in its religious landscape with the arrival of a large number of Protestant evangelical groups since the early 1990s, and conversion to these new faiths among the local population, who were previously always perceived as Muslims. Such conversions to religions considered as ‘non-traditional’ for Central Asia made many local communities unhappy, particularly in the rural areas. The state's portrayal of Islam and Orthodox Christianity as ‘traditional’ and appropriate, stricter religious policies and the demonisation of new groups in the mass media contributed to this dissatisfaction, and further reinforced local negative sentiments towards Protestants and conversion. Converts have faced all kinds of aggression and violence, and because the state has failed to protect them, many were forced to migrate. Migration usually happens from a village to the city, and less commonly to another country.