The Center for the Study of Public Opinion “Ijtimoiy Fikr” has conducted a monitoring study of trends and peculiarities in the development of religious consciousness of the population of Uzbekistan.
The population (93.2%) positively assessed the state’s policy in the sphere of religion aimed at satisfying the religious needs of believers in the country.
The overwhelming majority of respondents positively characterized the conditions created in the country to meet the religious needs of believers and the situation in the sphere of securing their rights.
The positive attitude of the majority of the population to the processes of religious revival in the country, considering the general restoration of historical and holy sites, the creation of conditions for their visit, remains unchanged.
The survey showed that in the country the family is the main social institution which largely influences the formation of a person’s life position, including his religious consciousness.
More than 90% of respondents noted that family education continues to occupy a leading place in society in warning and preventing unseemly acts. The behavior, legal measures of the state, moral criteria of a person, as well as his religious upbringing were marked as the priority factors restraining people from unseemly acts.
The problem of religious extremism and terrorism continues to be stressed as the main threat to the stability of the countries of the Central Asian region, including Uzbekistan – more than 76% of respondents think like this.
The vast majority of respondents (99%) are extremely negative about religious extremist trends. 89% of respondents believe that the forces nurturing the ideas of organizing terrorist acts will never achieve their destructive goals.
Among the main reasons that cause some young people to fall under the influence of religious extremist ideology, respondents indicated insufficient knowledge of some young men and women on Islamic traditions of the Uzbek people, the lack of solid moral standards. This opinion was held by every fourth respondent.