Özet:

Radicalism in general means the use and/or the choice of force as a method for adoption and implementation of a less or more consistent system of thought, which is opposed to at least one field of commonly accepted norms in social, political and economic spheres and is an alternative. Religious radicalism is a kind of radicalism that puts a system of beliefs into a system of criticism through political arguments and plays to create a change based on beliefs in the current situation, calls for power and/or violence as a method of proposing or not proposing a system of beliefs and legalizes it with religious arguments. The people of Central Asia, who began with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and lived under a totalitarian rule during the 1991 Soviet period, were treated as second-class citizens in social life and in the public sphere, and were under cultural pressure. In order to dominate the ideology of the system, the influence of existing religious systems was sought to be reduced, the greatest damage from this new system that was sought to be created was seen by the Muslims of Central Asia. During the Cold War period, which began in 1947, Islam was instrumentalized for two main policies in Central Asia. From the USSR point of view, it was first repressed for the regime's backdrop and then again supported for the regime's backdrop. In the face of the Soviet Union and communism, in the economic sense of the capitalist, in the political sense of the liberal United States and in the western block gathered around it, Islam was intended to be used as a driving force to move Muslims against the Soviet regime. During the Cold War, the dual use of Islam, along with the end of the Cold War, became one of the main determinants of the design of identity of the people of Central Asia. In other words, the Islam, which was repressed throughout the Soviet period, entered into action in the post-Soviet period to identify the differences in beliefs and cultures of the Central Asian individuals. Nevertheless, since religion was banned and even restricted in all dimensions from education to worship throughout the Soviet era, this new design of identity was formed by a limited and interpretative religious information channel, mostly by the hands of local religious leaders. This disturbance in the transmission and circulation of basic religious information has facilitated the root of radical religious groups in the region. In the existence of religious radicalism in the region; political causes, individual status, religious political objectives, social causes and philosophical causes are important.In the existence of religious radicalism in Central Asia, all these causes are effective, but there are also special conditions in the region. These conditions are the structure of the population and the historical conditions of each country which differ a little or less. Kazakhstan is the country with the least influential radical religious groups among the countries of Central Asia. There are two reasons for this situation. First, Kazakhstan’s national income per capita is much higher than other countries, and the second can be shown as the homogeneity of Kazakhstan’s population. The fact that radical elements may exist more in Uzbekistan than in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan shows that the excess of radical elements cannot be explained only by economic retardation. The main objective of this study is to address the main causes of religious radicalism in the countries of Central Asia; Islam in Central Asia has been discussed, religious radicalism has been explained and the causes of religious radicalism in the region have been focused. Historical and imaginary research methods have been used. Books, articles, internet sources, magazines, etc. Written sources and the observations of researchers have been exploited; the quality and quantitative method of information processing used in social sciences as a means of information processing is based.