Alevi struggles

Abstract

The Alevis are a difficult group to define. The definition I prefer is that the Alevis form the second largest community of belief after the Sunni Muslims in Turkey. This definition involves a few linguistic acrobatics. First, it allows me to avoid employing the term religion, simply because the Alevis themselves prefer to use the word belief, usually defining Alevism as a culture of belief. Second, it points to the question of demographics by locating Alevism statistically after Sunnism in terms of sheer numbers, thus I don't need to struggle with the concept of minority.