Among the factors attributed to HT's success in the region are the religious and political "vacuum" of post-Soviet society, the handicaps of the competing native Sufi and Saudi-financed Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, the sense of meaning and purpose in being part of a global umma HT offers [REF].
The clan-based support system of Central Asia generates suspicion of Western-style democratic modernization with its individualism and meritocracy that HT strenuously opposes [REF].