This chapter analyzes how the Uzbek state’s management of Islam is shaped by a fundamental contradiction: religion is both embraced as a source of moral authority and constrained as a potential threat to state power. Through the lens of paradoxical governance, this chapter explores how official Islam, embodied in state institutions such as the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, serves as a carefully curated form of religiosity that reinforces secular nationalism and legitimizes authoritarian rule. Islam, in this form, becomes heritage rather than faith, a symbol of cultural pride stripped of its emancipatory potential. At the same time, unofficial Islam—independent worship, informal study circles, and non-state clerical networks—is cast as deviant or dangerous, allowing the state to extend its surveillance and control under the guise of security. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the analysis shows that this system of regulation operates not only through repression but also through the co-optation of religious symbols and authority. This chapter argues that Uzbekistan’s current approach is less a departure from Soviet secularism than its reconfiguration: a governance model where Islam is simultaneously instrumentalized and feared, shaping a moral landscape defined by both devotion and discipline.