IFES Program Manager Anthony Bowyer will discuss Islamic movements in Central Asia at the annual conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. For details, visit www.csidonline.org.

Implementing Democracy: Prospects and Prognosis
Chair: Robert Schadler

"Islamic Movements and Democracy in Central Asia: Integration or Isolation?"  - Anthony C. Bowyer, International Foundation for Election Systems,  anthony@ifes.org

In the fourth and final session before the Banquet Dinner, CSID board member Robert Schadler served as moderator and introduced the final panel of speakers, beginning with Anthony C. Bowyer [bio, abstract], Program Manager, Caucasus and Central Asia at the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), whose presentation focused on questioning the role Islam will play in the short and long term political developments of the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan [paper]. He described two case studies conducted with the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the former attempted to gain power through legal means while the latter executed "attacks on government resources in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and continues to call for the creation of an Islamic caliphate based on Shari'ah Law." Given all this, he endeavored to discover the future of Islam and democracy in the region, considering the interesting dynamic operating between the aging authoritarian leadership and the youth-majority populations of the countries.