Why ‘New Uzbekistan’ is looking to its Islamic past

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Beneath a vast blue dome in the Uzbek capital, centuries of Islamic intellectual history are being recast as part of a modern national story at the Center of Islamic Civilization. At the new Center of Islamic Civilization, ancient manuscripts and the Uthman Quran sit alongside multimedia displays tracing Central Asia’s contributions to science, medicine and scholarship. But why is constitutionally secular Uzbekistan placing Islamic civilization at the heart of the “New Uzb