and Pakistan and were later killed in fights against coalition forces. In 1992 and 1993 around 50 missionaries from Saudi Arabia were expelled from the country. The Sufi missionaries too were forced to end their activities in the country. For the most part, however, in the years after the independence Uzbekistan saw a resurgence of a traditional form of Islam. According to a public opinion survey conducted in 1994, interest in Islam is growing very rapidly. Very few people in Uzbekistan were interested in a form of Islam that would participate actively in political issues. Thus, the first years of post-Soviet religious freedom seem to have fostered a form of Islam related to the Uzbek population more in traditional and cultural terms than in political ones. 2000s The government is against the Hizb ut-Tahrir and the followers of Said Nursî of Turkey. The government blames the May 2005 unrest in Uzbekistan on an aim to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan in order to make it a Central Asian theocratic republic. Uzbek President Islam Karimov "placed blame for the unrest on Islamic extremist groups, a label that he has used to describe political opponents in recent years and that his critics say is used as a pretext for maintaining a repressive state." Hizb ut-Tahrir have denied involvement in the unrest, but expressed sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the unrest, firmly laying blame on the repressive practices and corruption of the government. Islamic architecture See also Religion in Uzbekistan Islam by country Jadidism References Sources Further reading Louw, Maria Elisabeth. 2007. Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia. London: Routledge. Tucker, Noah. “Domestic Shapers of Eurasia’s Islamic Futures: Sheikh, Scholar, Society, and the State,” in Islam in Eurasia: A Policy Volume, 77–92. Cambridge, MA: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Cornell, S.E., 2005. Narcotics, radicalism, and armed conflict in Central Asia: the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan. Terrorism and Political Violence, 17(4), pp. 619–639. Weitz, R., 2004. Storm Clouds over Central Asia: Revival of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)?. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 27(6), pp. 505–530. Moore, C., 2007. Combating terrorism in Russia and Uzbekistan. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20(2), pp. 303–323. Abduvakhitov, A., 1993. Islamic revivalism in Uzbekistan. Eickelman, D.(Hg.): Russian Muslim Frontiers. New Directions in Cross-Cultural Analysis, pp. 79–97. Sinai, J., 2000. Islamic Terrorism and Narcotrafficking in Uzbekistan. Defense & Foreign Affairs’ Strategic Policy, 5, pp.