Alevis take to the streets

Liberal Muslim sect protests against discrimination in Ankara

ANKARA (AFP) – Thousands of people from a moderate Muslim community, the Alevis, took to the streets here yesterday, denouncing the Islamist-rooted government and calling for equal religious rights.

About 50,000 people, arriving from all parts of the country, gathered in downtown Ankara, chanting slogans against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and dancing traditional Alevi dances.

Protesters carried Turkish flags and portraits of Turkey’s secularist founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and placards with slogans such as: “End discrimination” and “Turkey is secular, it will remain secular.” The main Alevi demands include an end to Sunni dominance in the religious affairs directorate, the government agency regulating Muslim affairs; the abolition of compulsory religion classes in schools; and the recognition of Alevi temples as places of worship.

Turkey’s sizeable Alevi sect is a distant relative of Shiite Islam, known for its traditionally leftist and secularist leanings.

It has long been suppressed by the Sunni majority.

The Alevi faith, closely related to Sufism and Anatolian folk culture, is a version of Alawism particular to Turkey, though prominent also in Syria, and its adoration of the Prophet Ali makes it heretical in the eyes of the Sunnis.

They say that despite its advocacy of broader religious freedoms, the AKP government has done little on promises for reconciliation with the Alevis, who account for 15 to 20 million of Turkey’s 70-million population.

Alevis do not go to the mosque, but to a Cemevi, or House of Gathering, where, unlike Sunni Islam, women – omnipresent in Alevi society – participate in the main religious ritual during which they dance with the men.

The European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join, has also urged Ankara to expand Alevi rights.