central asian affairs 4 (2017) 1-25 © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/22142290-00401001 brill.com/caa Two Countries, Five Years: Islam in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan through the Lens of Public Opinion Surveys Barbara Junisbai Assistant Professor of Organizational Studies, Pitzer College, 1050 North Mills Avenue, Claremont, c a 91711 barbara_junisbai@pitzer.edu Azamat Junisbai Associate Professor of Sociology, Pitzer College, 1050 North Mills Avenue, Claremont, c a 91711 azamat_junisbai@pitzer.edu Baurzhan Zhussupov Chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Kazakh National Medical University, 94 Tole-bi, St.Almaty, 050000, Kazakhstan zhusupov.b@kaznmu.kz Abstract Drawing on two waves of public opinion surveys conducted in Kazakhstan and  Kyrgyz- stan, we investigate the rise in religiosity and orthodoxy among Central Asian Muslims. We confirm that a religious revival is underway, with nearly 100 percent of Kazakhstani and Kyrgyzstani Muslims self-identifying as such in 2012—up from 80 percent in Ka- zakhstan in 2007. If we dig a bit deeper, however, we observe cross-national variations. Religious practice, as measured by daily prayer and weekly mosque attendance, is up in Kyrgyzstan, but has fallen in Kazakhstan. While the share of those who express pref- erences associated with religious orthodoxy has grown in both, this group has more than doubled in Kazakhstan. We attribute these differences to political context, both in terms of cross-national political variation and, within each country, variation based on regional differences.