Abstract
The Alevi's form a religious community, which could be called either an order or a sect. Most of them want to be recognized as members of an Islamic sect. But the majority of the Islamic theologians in Turkey, which are Sunni's assert that there isn't an essential difference between Alevi's and Sunni's with regard to faith. The only difference was that the Alevi's retained some remnants of the old Turkish religious practices.
This paper is based on 23 qualitative interviews with Alevis. I argue that the Alevi faith should be reinterpreted especially in regard to the mystical personality of Ali and that a dialogue between Alevi and Sunni theologians should be possible to enable the recognization of the Alevi faith as Islamic and at the same time as making a difference.