☰ Contents · History of world religions

Religious education in Uzbekistan today

Lessons 27 · 1 lessons · Z. Islomov, D. Rahimjonov, J. Najmiddinov, N. Ismatova. History of world religions, Grade 11, 1st edition. Yangiyul Poligraph Service, Tashkent, 2018
27

Religious education in Uzbekistan today

Textbook: pp. 131–137
GoalDescribe the current system of religious education in Uzbekistan (secondary specialised, higher and research levels); state the tasks of the International Islamic Academy and the educational institutions of other confessions; explain on a legal basis the relation between religious and secular education.
New words
secondary specialised Islamic school · o‘rta maxsus islom bilim yurtihigher madrasa · oliy madrasaseminary · seminariyaInternational Islamic Academy · Xalqaro islom akademiyasi
Explanation

In the years of independence religious educational institutions were restored and came under the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan. According to the textbook the secondary specialised Islamic schools are the Mir-i Arab (Bukhara), Kukeldash (Tashkent), Sayyid Muhyiddin Makhdum (Andijan region), Hidoya (Namangan), Fakhriddin ar-Razi (Urgench), Khoja Bukhari (Kashkadarya), Muhammad Beruni (Nukus) and, for girls and women, the Joybori Kalon (Bukhara) and Khadicha Kubro (Tashkent). At the higher level the Imam al-Bukhari Tashkent Islamic Institute (established in 1971, now in the Hazrati Imam complex) and the Mir-i Arab Higher Madrasa, set up in 2017 in Bukhara on the territory of the Bahauddin Naqshband complex, operate. In 2017 a programme in Islamic history and source studies opened at Bukhara and Termez State Universities, and research schools were set up for hadith and theology in Samarkand, for Sufism in Bukhara, for aqida (creed) in Karshi and for Islamic law in Margilan. By the Presidential Decree of 16 April 2018 the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan was established: its founders are the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan and the Committee on Religious Affairs; the academy trains specialists in fields ranging from Qur’anic sciences and hadith to Islamic economics, international relations and Eastern and Western languages, coordinates the Islamic educational institutions of the republic in curricular and regulatory terms, and its graduates have the right to teach the relevant subjects in schools and higher educational institutions. Other confessions also have educational institutions: the Tashkent seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church, working since 1998 (a five-year course) and a Protestant (Full Gospel Christians) seminary. Secular education is kept separate as a state system: in general schools religion is studied as knowledge – within history and religious studies – not as worship, while religious education is carried out in registered religious educational institutions under the law.

Worked examples
Comparison: the Imam al-Bukhari Tashkent Islamic Institute was opened in 1971, the International Islamic Academy dates from 2018; the first remained from the Soviet period, the second is a new coordinating and research centre.
Learning topics such as “the history of religions” or religious studies in a secular school is acquiring knowledge; learning or performing particular worship is the task of a religious educational institution. This course concerns only the former.
Class activity

Table: write the secondary specialised, higher and research stages of religious education in Uzbekistan in columns and in each give at least one institution name, city and area of activity (from a reliable source).

Practice
1
What stages does religious education in Uzbekistan consist of? Give an example of each stage.
2
When and by whom was the International Islamic Academy established and what is its task?
3
Give two examples of religious educational institutions of other confessions.
4
Why does learning religious-studies topics in a secular school differ from religious education?