Video CDs with Islamic contents are widespread in Tajikistan. They are relatively easy to access and are circulated within peer groups, families or mosque communities, although most of them are labelled illegal by the government. We have analyzed more than 20 of these videos. They can roughly be divided into three categories:
- mavlud: preaching of famous mullahs at burials (and weddings)
- hagiographic movies about major Islamic events in history or famous personalities
- collections of short video clips or pictures with impressing, sometimes shocking motives (e.g. of dead bodies).
Some of the material seems to have a clear target group, others are just copies of copies in such a bad quality that they look like home-made works by single persons or unprofessional groups. Why do people buy them? Quite a large part of Tajik youth is fond of learning about Islam since they believe that their parents suffered from deficiency of Islamic knowledge throughout the Soviet era. This uncertainty led to extreme openness towards all kinds of religious interpretation. As the videos come mostly anonymous they are not seen as some group’s opinions of Islam but as universal truth, other than flyers that bear a group’s name and are easily discarded as religious propaganda. The videos draw on basic knowledge that can be obtained by mosque visits and rely heavily on fear of what will come after death. The language is adapted to the would-be-buyers: in ethnically mixed areas CDs in all relevant languages can be found at local markets (Tajik, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Russian).
While videos such as the hagiographic stories and mavlud are one way to get information and improve ones own religious background, others are more explicit. Especially videos of the third category are dedicated to disseminate a Salafist Islamic interpretation in Tajikistan.
The focus in this paper will thus be on their content as well as on the questions of why and to whom these videos are attractive and how they function in the social setting of Tajikistan.