Alevi vs Alawite

They are not the same.

Alevi is a Turkish Sufi order/sect. The name Alevi is Turkish for the Arabic word Alawi. It should not be confused with the Alawite of Syria. The Alawite of Syria is also known as the Nusayris.

Due to some similarity in the name (Alevi vs Alawi), most people think they are the same but in fact they are not.

Here's a mistake a journalist made in his report.

As Syria’s civil war degenerates into a bloody sectarian showdown between the government’s Alawite-dominated troops and the Sunni Muslim majority, tensions are increasing across the border between Turkey’s Alawite minority and the Sunni Muslim majority here.

Many Turkish Alawites, estimated at 15 million to 20 million strong and one of the biggest minorities in this country, seem to be solidly behind Syria’s embattled strongman, Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey’s government, and many Sunnis, supports the Syrian rebels [1] (The New York Times).

As you can see, the author used Alawite in Syria interchangeably with the Alevi in Turkey. That is incorrect. They are not the same.

Reference
[1] Article name: As Syria War Roils, Unrest Among Sects Hits Turkey
Author: JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published date: August 4, 2012
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/world/middleeast/turkish-alawites-fear-spillover-of-violence-from-syria.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Book - Secret Sects Of Syria And The Lebanon (1922)

Available online http://archive.org/details/secretsectsofsyr032392mbp

Book metadata:
Secret Sects Of Syria And The Lebanon (1922)
Author: Springett,Bernard H.
Subject: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Social Welfare; Social welfare
Publisher: George Allen And Unwin Limited.
Language: English
Call number: 32392
Book contributor: Osmania University
Collection: universallibrary

The Syrian Alawites - Rise to Power

There has been much interest in the Syrian Alawite/Alawi in the recent time, mainly due to the conflict in Syria.

The history of Alawite rise to power in Syria is quite interesting. It started in the early nineteen century when the French was occupying Syria.

The majority of the Syrian (Sunni Muslim) were against the French. Alawis, who were treated as the second class citizen by the Sunnis, saw a bright future for themselves and perhaps an opportunity to get rid of their leper-like-status among the Syrians.

They formed a strong alliance with French, and in return, the French provided moral and material support to the Alawis. And in a very short time, they established their autonomous state and a strong military presence.

In the next 30 to 40 years, a lot of interesting things started happening in Syria and around the Middle East. A lot of worthless ideas like Pan-Arabism/Bathism were also floating around the Middle East.

The Alawis were unwilling to see their power and influence being diminished by democracy since democracy would most certainly favor the Sunni Majority.

The rest of the history is pretty much predictable. The Alawis used their vastly superior powers (mostly military) to get rid of all their opponents and placed members of their own sects on the top of the chain (at helm).

The Alawis, under Hafeez al-Assad, who was a very brutal dictator, carried out unimaginable horrific acts against his own people to silence their political voice and aspiration.

The Alawis (and I shouldn't really be using this term loosely because they are not really a monolithic block) also exert their influence and took a number of measures to ensure that their religious sect would be more inline with the mainstream Islam.

In the next couple of posts, I am going to delve deeper into the Alawi sect.