--- title: Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority | TIME description: TIME's Nathan Thornburgh and Pelin Turgut visit a once secret Alevi Muslim prayer service in Istanbul, Turkey. canonical: https://time.com/video/FwLVdUSX/ og:title: Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority og:description: TIME's Nathan Thornburgh and Pelin Turgut visit a once secret Alevi Muslim prayer service in Istanbul, Turkey. og:url: https://time.com/video/FwLVdUSX/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FwLVdUSX/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority twitter:description: TIME's Nathan Thornburgh and Pelin Turgut visit a once secret Alevi Muslim prayer service in Istanbul, Turkey. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FwLVdUSX/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority [Watch (HLS stream): Turkey's Unconventional Muslim Minority](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FwLVdUSX.m3u8) (3:05)  _Published 2008-05-05. TIME's Nathan Thornburgh and Pelin Turgut visit a once secret Alevi Muslim prayer service in Istanbul, Turkey._ --- Jul 27, 2023 12:50 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Congress Condemns China Over Brutal Crackdown on the Muslim Minority](/video/n8zDiGmI/) ### Congress Condemns China Over Brutal Crackdown on the Muslim Minority [5 Unconventional Ways to Cook a Turkey](/video/AoeyKZnk/) ### 5 Unconventional Ways to Cook a Turkey [Turkey's Prime Minister Says He Will Do Everything He Can](/video/uD32kI7u/) ### Turkey's Prime Minister Says He Will Do Everything He Can --- ## Transcript >> For TIME. com this is Istanbul correspondent, Pelin Turgut. Here with New York- based writer, Nathan Thornburgh. But both of us spent Thursday evening recently in [ unk ], a working class neighbourhood in Istanbul to visit the prayer service of the Alevis. They're this fascinating subgroup of Turkish Muslims politically progressive, very open- minded and actually kind of touchy feely. >> That's right. Coming from the States, I'd had a fairly one- dimensional view of what Islam in Turkey would really look like. I've been to some Sunni services which are pretty austere events segregated by sex and so on. But this was kind of different. >> But to be fair, most Turks have no idea what an Alevi service looks like either. The religion has been underground for hundreds of years. They faced a lot of persecution from the Sunni authorities. And just for a few decades ago, for instance, they worshipped in secret and never would've invited us to come and visit them. >> For me, though, it was pretty benign. It was hard to see where the controversy might be. >> It might have seem like an enormous scene to you, but this is a Muslim house of worship. Having teenage girls and boys flirting in the lobby, women in jeans with their hair uncovered, all these is pretty unorthodox. >> That's right. There were sermons, songs, and calling response sessions. It did feel a little like Sunday in a Baptist church. -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] -[ Foreign Language ] >> There were parts of it that really underline this Alevi sense of gender equality, too. Not only do some of them sit in mixed groups but there are egalitarian rituals like the hand washing where a teenage boy washes a girl's hands and vice versa. >> It's tempting to call them new [ unk ] but Alevism is actually incredibly old. Many of the elements in the service we saw are pre- Islamic from when the Turks were nomadic horsemen in Central Asia like led dressed of those Central Asian steps they're wearing. They worship in a circles, as if they were still in their traditional [ unk ]. Yes, Alevis worship prophet Muhammad and like [ unk ] Muslims, they follow his son- in- law, Ali. In fact, Alevi means supporter of Ali. But they also think all religions have their valid points and they call conservative Islam backwards. They live partially by the rules of the Koran and partially by their own Alevi aphorisms. >> I think that one saying of theirs is my favorite- to control your hand, your tongue and your loins. But, you know, they're a huge group depending on who's counting. They are anywhere from 10 to 20 million Alevis in Turkey up to 30 percent of the population. So, that kind of makes them the biggest religion you've never heard of. >> Although that might change, the Alevi are more open as we've seen. They're asking for more political recognition and are making their case internationally. >> That seems like it can be only a good thing. There's a huge debate in Turkey and really around the world about how Islam can mesh with democracy or western or European Union values. 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