As part of the Central Asian population and the Turkic world, Kazaks are conscious of
the role Islam plays in their identity, and there is strong public pressure to
increase the role that faith plays in society. At the same time, the roots of Islam in
many segments of Kazak society are not as deep as they are in neighboring countries.
Many of the Kazak nomads, for instance, did not become Muslims until the eighteenth or
even the nineteenth century, and urban Russified Kazaks, who by some counts constitute
as much as 40 percent of the indigenous population, profess discomfort with some
aspects of the religion even as they recognize it as part of their national heritage.
Soviet authorities attempted to encourage a controlled form of Islam as a unifying
force in the Central Asian societies while at the same time stifling the expression of
religious beliefs. Since independence, religious activity has increased significantly.
Construction of mosques and religious schools has accelerated in the 1990s, with
financial help from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt. Already in 1991, some 170 mosques
were operating, more than half of them newly built; at that time, an estimated 230
Muslim communities were active in Kazaksta.
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