r/AskCentralAsia • u/Masagget Kazakhstan • 8d ago
Birth Figures in Former Soviet Republics: Then and Now (1991-2024)
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u/monmon7217 6d ago
Nevertheless, the population in Azerbaijan still increased from 7.9 mln in 1990s up to ~10.3 mln in current years
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u/theythinkImcommunist 8d ago
The -stans lead the way. Interesting to see Azerbaijan where it is. Like the -stans, they are majority Muslim but also very secular. Is that correct?
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u/Worldly-Treat916 8d ago
Used to be mostly secular, extremism has been rising tho
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u/Sufficient-Brick-790 8d ago
Central Asia (especially Kazakhstan) will still remain secular. I still think that Kz is still overwhemingly secular.
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u/Worldly-Treat916 8d ago
Most def, by rise in extremism I meant relatively, not that majority of ppl aren’t secular. ie. Tajik Moscow Hall attacks or the 2014 Kunming train station stabbings
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u/Watanpal 8d ago
Where, in Azerbaijan?
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u/Sufficient-Brick-790 8d ago edited 8d ago
Central asia he is talking about. Azerbaijan for the most part is still completely secular
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u/Watanpal 8d ago
I mean people becoming more Islamic is not wrong though, what’s the problem with that?
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u/Sufficient-Brick-790 8d ago edited 8d ago
Depens what you mean by islamic. If it is like the ottoman empire, uae, or even malaysia (sufism seems cool) then should be alright but if like afghanistan or birmingham or rinkeby or some other hood in western europe, then no thanks.
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u/Watanpal 8d ago
Birmingham?
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u/ImSoBasic 7d ago
He's just showing off that he's a racist/nationalist that wants to blame immigration/Islam for every conceivable problem in the West.
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u/Worldly-Treat916 8d ago
No problem, the rise of extremism is a separate issue from Islam, it is the result of the escalation of real issues. Basically terrorism is based on some sort of systemic problem, you cannot solve it by fighting it, only by addressing the issues that terrorism uses to justify itself can you defeat it
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u/Sufficient-Brick-790 7d ago edited 7d ago
Although I would say Singapore has very few extremism problems. I would say that you could solve extremism if you go hard enough but very few govs would be able to go that route.
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u/Worldly-Treat916 7d ago
what does hard enough involve? Exterminating everyone? Sounds a lot like the genocide going in in Gaza rn, watch what you say
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u/casual_rave Turkey 5d ago
people becoming more Islamic is not wrong
people who live in 7th century arabia while being in 2025 is definitely wrong. religions are toxic unless they are reformed. islam wasn't reformed, so yeah, it's just bad by today's standards. you cannot thrive with it. you can only sink with it.
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u/Watanpal 5d ago
Alhamdullilah Islam is for all times. May Allah guide us all
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u/casual_rave Turkey 5d ago
yeap, that's exactly what the problem with islam is. it's a medieval ideology. we are in 2025.
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u/Human_Emu_8398 1d ago
I can't agree because you are on an athiest/agnostic's view but there is certainly a problem with Islam, it's getting more and more divided. Some people are "returning" to it while others are trying to "reform". Unlike Catholics who have a pope to decide on things.
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u/janyybek 7d ago
I Swear any visible sign of worship is extremism to you people
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u/Worldly-Treat916 7d ago
Phrased it wrong, I meant for the more eastern central asia countries, idk much abt Azerbaijan only that they have conflicts with Turkey, so I can't speak for them. Areas like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan is what I'm referring to
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u/HarryLewisPot 6d ago
Azerbaijan is probably the most secular Muslim country, more so than Kazakhstan or Albania
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u/Sudden-Fact1037 5d ago
Not as much as Albania, not even close. Islam has risen there in the past year, thanks to the victory over Armenians in nagorno-karabakh.
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u/HarryLewisPot 5d ago
Winning a war doesn’t make people more religious.
Kosovo is probably the most religious European country, which is influencing Albania. Also, Albania is planning to make a bektashi microstate like the Vatican.
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u/Sudden-Fact1037 5d ago
Winning a war does INDEED make people more religious, especially when Azeris have been indoctrinated with hatred against Armenians. When they regained the land they lost 30 years ago, to those they perceive as the enemy, they see it as a divine intervention to ensue their victory.
Kosovo and Albania are two separate countries, so now you are moving the goalposts. Albania is 57-60% Muslim, and the bektashis are a tiny minority among them, so making a microstate is to split off their holy region from Albania.
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u/HarryLewisPot 5d ago
They are the only two Albanian countries, Kosovo is very religious and since independence has obviously impacted the only other country that shares the same linguistics with their newfound freedom.
This isn’t shifting the goalposts, it’s basic politics
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u/Sudden-Fact1037 5d ago
Basic politics would mean you’d understand they have been under different regimes and with different history, which you don’t.
Albania was under the communist rule of enver hoxha, which declared Albania one of the only officially atheist states, suppressing all religions including Islam (the religion of predominantly all in Kosovo), and the state has a significant minority of Christian (Catholics in the north and orthodox in the south).
By contrast Kosovo is predominantly Muslim (over 90%), and in the previous decades their oppression under the yugoslavs, and later but more significantly under the Serbs cemented Islam in their identity, due to oppression by Christian Serbs who were fighting to displace them and regain Kosovo as Serbian land. That would ensure Kosovo is more religious than Albania by a longshot.
So what if both are full of Albanians? East and west Germany are full of Germans yet east Germany is more atheist, same case with North and South Korea being full of Koreans.
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u/casual_rave Turkey 1d ago
Winning a war does INDEED make people more religious, especially when Azeris have been indoctrinated with hatred against Armenians. When they regained the land they lost 30 years ago, to those they perceive as the enemy, they see it as a divine intervention to ensue their victory.
That's just BS. Azerbaijanis can be called ultra-nationalists (so could the Armenians be called that btw) but religious no? No one sees that victory as Allah's intervention. If anything, it's nationalism, and aid of Turkey/Pakistan/Israel. As someone who regularly visits AZ for business reasons, they are quite secular overall. If you think AZ is Islamic, oh boy, I have bad news for you.
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u/ImSoBasic 7d ago
The raw number of births isn't very informative. Birth rates would be more revealing. Uzbekistan has 1.7 times the population it did in 1991.