“The Light of the Alevi Fire Was Lit in Germany and then Spread to Turkey”: A Transnational Debate on the Boundaries of Islam

Abstract

Research on the transnational Alevi Muslim community in Berlin, Vienna, and Istanbul suggests that the Muslim identities and political agendas that seek recognition in Europe are largely made in Europe and hence are indigenous to Europe. Thus it is the political, legal, and social context of the post‐Cold War European Union and the unique conditions of individual European countries that shape the way Muslim communities define themselves in that sociopolitical geography. These new identities that come into being at the core of Europe transform the debates and definitions of Islam in the Muslim‐majority peripheries of Europe rather than vice versa.