Assuming some butterfly nets are involved up to the present day, how would have Central Asia evolved without Islam?
While having some idea on the pre-Islamic indigenous peoples and belief systems residing in North Africa, the Middle East and India / Southeast Asia in No/Screwed-Islam scenarios, the same cannot be said for Central Asia as have little idea which groups of peoples and belief systems would have ultimately dominated the area, let alone which peoples and belief systems would have likely survived to the present.
It seems the region was predominately Iranian in OTL, yet could Turkic peoples let alone Chinese under the Tang, Indians and possibly even Tibetans have challenged the Iranian dominance in Central Asia?
Have also heard of some claiming that while Central Asia was a melting pot of peoples, ethnicities and belief systems, Hinduism was actually gaining ground in the region prior to the Islamic invasions. Then there is the fact that before and after the Islamic conquests in OTL, various hordes from Central Asia had a habit of invading or attempting to invade either Persia, India or China and would have done so regardless of TL.