Word: karacaahmet
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...centuries, the Alevi response to persecution has been to worship in secret, while trying to pass as Sunni. Amid the political liberalization that has accompanied Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, however, many Alevi have begun emerging from the shadows. At the Karacaahmet Sultan shrine on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, the cemevi runs entirely on donations to the tune of $159,000 a year. Volunteers teach traditional Alevi music and dance, while the group's pro bono lawyers fight for Alevi rights in court. Last year, an Alevi parent, angered by compulsory religion classes his teenage...
...Upstairs at the Karacaahmet Sultan shrine, an Alevi leader named Muharrem Ercan sits behind his desk in his smoke-filled office. He's confident, he says, that the Alevi are on the winning side. "We solved the issue of whether Islam could be tolerant 750 years ago," he says. "It's the rest of Turkey that has to catch...
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