Islom Karimov is getting in on the territory left open by the death of Turkmenbashi with his own book on moral living.
Last week, Uzbek state television showed the presidential book-launch ceremony, where participants praised Karimov’s new work as “the best book on philosophy and morality since the times of Socrates,” the ancient Greek who was one of the founders of Western philosophy.
Mahmud Tohir, an Uzbek poet, has read Karimov’s new book. He says it could be “a spiritual guide not only for Uzbeks but also for all the other nations of the world.”
“In all times and in all periods, persons with accomplished morality have become their own people’s spiritual guide and eventually — depending on the level of their profound knowledge — have turned into a guide for the whole of humanity,” Tohir says. “This book looks, firstly, at the world’s development and secondly, looks to the future of the Uzbek motherland and its hard-working people.”
I assume it is only a matter of time before we see a bunch of “oh, isn’t Uzbekistan wacky?” stories coming across the wires.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2974 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.
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“Ruhnama” for Uzbeks:)
Steve from Wisonsin will be pissed
This is starting to get creepy. Just last year I was talking with a British doctor (in Tashkent) who worked in the Ashgabat embassy clinic in the mid 90s, and said the way things were changing in Uzbekistan reminded him all the time of the way that things changed in Turkmenistan as Niyazov began to really go nuts. At the time I thought it was interesting, but over the last year I’ve found it more and more eerie. This just kind of puts the icing on that cake.
Time to find out if it was true when my Uzbek friends laughed at Turkmenistan and said, “That could NEVER happen here!”
I think I’m going to throw up…