brill.com/caa © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/22142290-00201003 central asian affairs 2 (2015) 35-50 * The author thanks Neil Doshi and David Gullette for comments on an earlier version of this paper, and Johan Engvall and Marlene Laruelle for the invitation to first present it in Uppsala, Sweden. Islam beyond Democracy and State in Kyrgyzstan David W. Montgomery Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh dwm@pitt.edu Abstract Much has been made of the importance of democracy to securing individual rights and the general advancement of a just society. The role of democracy in post-Soviet governance and the strength of the state, however, have been called into question on many counts. Both state and democratic structures have been supported by elites who have used the claims of democracy and state to combat, or at least constrain, gover- nance rooted in Islam. The ideals of democracy and the state, however, are experi- enced differently by those who are secularists and those for whom religion is a lived category. In this piece, I concern myself with how Muslims experience democracy and the state in Kyrgyzstan and thus how many remain unseduced by the unfulfilled prom- ises of political rhetoricians. Keywords Kyrgyzstan – Central Asia – Well-being – Islamization – Political Islam – Morality – Democracy – Just society … Fudalah b. ‘Ubayd reported that the Prophet (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave these instructions: There are three people you need not ask about [as they are unques- tionably bad]: a man who deserts the community, disobeys his leader, and dies a rebel; a slave, whether male or female, who runs away from