The resurgence of Islam in a post-Soviet Azerbaijan

After Azerbaijan recovered its independence in 1991, its people turned to Islam, which had always been an important identity marker, to fill the ideological vacuum that followed the breakdown of the Soviet system, a process that was profoundly affected by the agendas and actions of neighboring Muslim countries like Iran which promoted radical Shiism, Turkey with its Sunni Orthodoxy and the Gulf states which aimed to further various Wahhabi / Salafi doctrines. While most Azerbaijanis remained far more secular than many in other historically Islamic countries, there has been a significant growth in religious practice and belief over the last two decades.  More veiled women now appear on the streets of Baku, a capital with strong cosmopolitan and secular tradition, and more people attend Friday prayers.  Whilst external factors were important in the increased level of religiosity, for many who turned to religion this was also an instrumental way of expressing frustration about the increasing wealth gap, corruption, and stalemate in the war with Armenia, as well as a conservative reaction to western cultural influences permeating through the media.