A new imam arrives in a Central Asian town during Soviet rule. He starts an Islamic learning center without the knowledge of the government. Later the government finds out. What might you expect to happen?

[carleykayy]

The government embraces the new imam and promotes his learning center.



The government punishes the imam and closes his learning center.





The government bans Islam from that particular Central Asian town.



The government hires the imam to work for its religious bureau.

[Brian-Ghilliotti]

This applies to the Soviet era as much as it applies to the Central Asian region in the post Soviet era...

If this imam is affiliated with a political party, he will be arrested thrown into prison, or worse, depending on the Central Asian nation where it happened. Only Tajikistan permits political Islamic parties, a hard won concession after the civil war in the 1990's. And even then, the Tajik government probably puts enormous pressure on these political organizations. If the imam is just trying to build a mosque to preach and practice Islam, I would imagine the Central Asian government in question will watch you like a hawk. It would be best to not mix politics and religion if you are interested in "going into the ministry" (as we Christians say) in Central Asia. One thing that can be construed as political, and even anti-government, you will have your mosque shut down, you will get arrested, and your congregation will be at risk (and monitored). This is my educated guess, I do not live in this region.

Brian Ghilliotti