Talk:Islam in Kazakhstan

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The breakdown of population of Kazakhstan into two large groups, Muslims and Russian Orthodox is based purely on nationalities (Kazakh=Muslim and Russian=Orthodox), not actual beliefs. It has the same validity as the statement that 99% of Swedes are Christians because they are whites (the real number, as far I remember, is less than 5%). This is just nonsense.

I believe that the recent surge of ranks among religious people in Kazakhstan is solely a result of 70 years of Soviet deprivation of spiritual needs. In reality, at best 10% of Kazakh are really Muslims and 10% of Russians are Orthodox. The remaining are deists who believe in some higher power, say Kudai for Kazakhs, claim to be of certain religion yet never been to mosque/church, read Quran/Bible, and follow the covenants. In fact, many do not even know the very basics of their religion.

The only time when people actually "become religious" is during funeral ceremonies, that's it. Once it's over people go back to normal.

--Ibr 13:48, 16 April 2006 (UTC): The article needs to provide some evidence on "there is strong public pressure to increase the role that faith plays in society", I personally haven't seen any.