Reclaiming the Faith: Islamic Education Reform in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Post-New Order Indonesia

Abstract

This article explores how two post-authoritarian Muslim societies, Uzbekistan and Indonesia, have sought to reclaim Islamic education as part of national reconstruction after decades of political control. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991) and Indonesia’s New Order regime (1998), both countries faced the challenge of rebuilding faith within radically different legacies: seventy years of Soviet atheism versus thirty-two years of bureaucratic depoliticization. Through a comparative historical analysis of policy documents, institutional reforms, and scholarly literature, the study examines how each state and society redefined Islamic education’s role in shaping modern Muslim identity. Findings reveal two divergent paradigms of reclamation. Uzbekistan represents a state-managed revival, where the government reintroduces Islam under strict supervision, framing it as a moral resource for nationalism and stability. Religious academies such as the Imam Bukhari Center and Tashkent Islamic Academy symbolize revival with restraint, faith reborn but domesticated. Indonesia, by contrast, embodies a societal-driven integration, characterized by plural, decentralized, and intellectually open reform. Civil society organizations, scholars, and universities (UINs) lead efforts to integrate religious and secular knowledge, producing a vibrant but uneven ecosystem of Islamic education. The comparison suggests that reclaiming faith after authoritarianism is not a simple restoration but a negotiated reconstruction shaped by memory and power. Uzbekistan struggles to move from control to confidence, while Indonesia must evolve from expansion to coherence. Both, however, reveal that faith reclaimed is faith still in motion, learning anew how to think, to teach, and to belong in the modern world.