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Paper short abstract:

I study the legal recognition of religious minorities and how secularism transforms religious life through recognition. I will discuss how the Alevi recognition in Europe triggered a debate on the definition and roots of Alevism in their attempts for recognition and thus to get rooted in Europe.

Paper long abstract:

My research focuses on the Alevi recognition in Germany, France, and Turkey. Departing from the conventional legal and sociological definition of secularism as the separation of state and religion, I explore how secularism, through the agency of the state, becomes integral to the self-conceptions, practices, institutions, and ideals of religious life; and how in this process, the religious life gets transformed with the participation of the believers. I argue that liberal states ultimately decide what counts as religion (Asad 2003), and investigate how the actions of the state reconfigure religious life following a secular conceptual order.

Alevi recognition, which started in 2012 in Germany and Switzerland, gave Turkish Alevism the same legal status as Sunni Islam for the first time. Currently, Alevism is also recognized in Austria, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark. Based on my preliminary ethnographic fieldwork at the Alevi organizations in Paris and Berlin, I demonstrate how this process triggered an intensified debate within the Alevi community in Europe and Turkey on the definition and practices of Alevism – while their major question is where to situate Alevism, in Islam or outside of Islam. These debates in the circles gravitate quickly towards the question of roots -- against which the authenticity of the practices is tested or claimed. In my talk, I will discuss how the question of tradition, belonging and connectedness to Turkey (and Islam) becomes an important topic for Alevis in their struggle for legal recognition and the very attempt to get rooted in Europe.