Ibrahim, Diloram. "The Islamization of Central Asia: A Case Study of Uzbekistan". Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1993.

Ibrahim, Diloram. The Islamization of Central Asia: A Case Study of Uzbekistan. Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1993.

• This book provides a cursory glance into the Islamization of Central Asia in the 8th Century, primarily focused on Buxoro, Samarqand, and other large Uzbek oasis cities, and the late 20th Century. It focuses mainly on a documentary description of the original Islamic conquest of Central Asia, free from analysis. The latter portion of the book looks briefly at the status of Islam within the Soviet Union, and the role of Islam within Central Asia, and particular Uzbek culture and governance.
• This pamphlet is very much a reflection of the time and training of its author, Dr. Diloram Ibrahim. She was educated at Soviet institutions in the tradition of Soviet evolutionary and cultural fundamentalist anthropology and it comes across in her writing. The natural connection made between the Uzbeks and Islam, and the Russians and Christianity or Soviet Atheism shows a lack of analytical depth. Furthermore, the author uncritically uses Soviet sources to make claims about Uzbek culture, demonstrating a lack of understand about the artificiality of most of the customs she praises as 'authentic' or 'Muslim'.
• The author provides a detail description of the patterns and timeline of the Muslim invasion of Central Asia from page 7 to page 16.
• The entirety of the description of the Islamic conquest depends on a small number of sources with no analysis or reference to other historians, meaning the section is very likely false and entirely unrelated to the discussions of Islamic rebirth in contemporary Central Asia. Either way, it is not put in historical context nor does it look at anything beyond dates and big names.
• The focus of this book is very much on the brutality of the Soviet regime towards religious expression and Islam, with the story of Islamic practice in Central Asia being portrayed as one of victimhood and martyrdom. The sponsors of this book seem to expect that the new polities of Central Asia will be defined by Islamism, and that this political process will be a realization of their natural state (3).
• Although religious practice faded and was forced from public areas, Islam never died out in the Soviet Union. The author makes a point that Islam became a cultural practice and a way of life was seen as Muslim, versus the actual adherence to religious principles (17-18).
• As proof of Islam's continuation within cultural practices, the author notes that even urbanites who speak Russian and live in apartments still follow traditional birth, marriage, and death rituals. Dr. Diloram believes that this demonstrates a strong tie to traditional Islam within all strata (18).
• Dr. Diloram assumes that the only ideologies and world views in Uzbekistan are Communism and Islam; the foreign mindset and the native mindset. Moreover, the author says that the failures of Communist rule have badly effected the attraction of Marxist ideology, meaning that Islamic values still hold sway over most of Uzbekistan (18).
• This is a horribly cultural fundamentalist argument which could really only be made by a Soviet anthropologist. Rather than viewing individual Uzbeks as rational humans capable of independent thought and the creation of novel forms of ideology of governance, Dr. Diloram limits all Uzbek thought to the Marxism imposed upon them and the Islamic values which are presented as universal and which they are naturally predisposed towards. 
• The author includes critiques of Soviet rule standard for the contemporary Uzbek intelligentsia. These grievances include the cotton monoculture, industrial pollution, mass importation of European industrial workers, lack of food crops, pesticide usage, use of child labour in the cotton fields, and the Aral Sea disaster (19).
• The author also includes more nuanced criticism of Soviet language and nationality policies, seeing the attempts to replace Uzbek with Russia as along the same lines as the destruction of Islam -- with both portrayed as an attack on cultural institutions and the way of life. Both are roundly criticized as objectively bad and discriminatory (19-20).
• Later the author defends Uzbek cultural conservatism, equating Soviet rule with drunkenness, divorce, and sexual libertines. Dr. Diloram proposes that these practices are instilled in Uzbek youth because women have to work under the Soviet system and thus leave the atheistic state responsible for child care (23).
• The author recognizes that the nature of cultural fundamentalism within Soviet nationality policy has led to a situation where nationality and religious practice are confused, with genuine Islamic practice subordinated to cultural Uzbek practices viewed as 'Muslim' (21). Uzbeks in particular have fallen prey to this mixture of Islam and nationality, using their artificial cultural achievements to exalt themselves as Muslim without knowing anything about the Quran (22).
• The author claims that the powers and strength of Mahalla in Uzbekistan is a result of a strong native organization of religious communities, which the Soviets were forced to recognize and respect by allowing it to remain (22). Dr. Diloram also portrays the Mahalla as the focal point for current resistance to Soviet norms, since it organizes most of the life event rituals and extols Islamic morality against the alcoholism and sexual liberation of the Soviet Union (23).
• This is nonsense, of course. The Soviet anthropologists essentially created the Mahalla system, later strengthened by Islom Karimov, as a way of effective social control while portraying it as a legitimate and authentically Uzbek institution. The author makes the same mistake.
• The author argues that Christianity disappeared under Soviet rule whereas Islam remained because Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity both require intense clerical training and rigid organizational structures, whereas Islam simply requires some familiarity with the Quran. As such, the destruction of independent imams and madrassas did not stop Islam as it had stopped Christianity (24).
• The author details the current structure of Islam in Communist Central Asia as depending upon informal authorities preaching distinction version of the Quran and meeting in unofficial locations, largely antagonistic towards and outside of the control of the Official Mufti in Toshkent. These men are universally non-profession and usually hold jobs outside of their preaching (25).
• Again, this book did not take into account the massive Christian belief in contemporary Russia nor the widespread continuation of private religious practices and life event rituals practiced by Christians living under Soviet or Communist rule.
• The resurgence of Islam in Uzbekistan during this period is characterized by moderate and radical trends: both embodied during this period by the Islamic Revival Party, a organization with branches all over the Soviet Union. Within its membership are moderates who want to restore public morality and eradicate the false cultural practices which have become mistaken for Islam, and the radicals who wish to establish an Islamic State (26).
• The group, under great protest from official institutions of religion, been allowed to register as a political party in Tajikistan. The Uzbekistani branch of the movement has not yet been allowed to register as a political party (27).
• The author characterizes the policy of President Islom Karimov towards Islam as fundamentally contradictory. He seems to want to accept Islam, but also preserve the institutions and religious controls of the Soviet Union. As such, he is allowing society to undergo an Islamic revival, but seems strongly resistant to any presence of Islam in politics (27).