1. Kyrgyzstan
[By
CIA THE WORLD FACTBOOK]
Ethnic groups:
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Kyrgyz 64.9%, Uzbek 13.8%, Russian 12.5%, Dungan 1.1%, Ukrainian
1%, Uighur 1%, other 5.7% (1999 census)
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Languages:
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Kyrgyz (official) 64.7%, Uzbek 13.6%, Russian (official) 12.5%,
Dungun 1%, other 8.2% (1999 census)
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Religions:
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Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%
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Population:
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5,496,737 (July 2012 est.)
country comparison
to the world:
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A
minaret
of the
Dungan
mosque in
Karakol.
A small minority
in Kyrgyzstan,
Dungans are also
Muslims |
2.
Islam in Kyrgyzstan
[By
WIKIPEDIA ]
Islam was introduced to the Kyrgyz tribes
between the eight and twelfth centuries. More recent exposure to Islam
occurred in the seventeenth century, when the Jungars drove the Kyrgyz of
the Tian Shan region into the Fergana Valley, whose population was totally
Islamic. However, as the danger from the Jungars subsided, a few elements of
the Kyrgyz population returned to some of their tribal customs. When the
Quqon Khanate advanced into northern Kyrgyzistan in the eighteenth century,
various northern Kyrgyz tribes remained aloof from the official Islamic
practices of that regime. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the
entire Kyrgyz population, including the tribes in the north, had converted
to Sunni Islam. Each of the Muslim ethnic groups has a deep and long
tradition of customary law. The ethnic Kyrgyz have also preserved
pre-Islamic traditions and customs.
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