[JeremyIV]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/wo...pagewanted=all

I presume they mean the shia in turkey, medlevis or whatever they are called.

Here are some highlights:

"He was sitting in a cafe in Antakya, a border town with a large Alawite population, and digging into a plate of baklava during the bright, sunny hours of the afternoon, when Muslims observing Ramadan usually fast.

“Look at my people,” he smiled, spreading his hands wide and encompassing families eating ice cream and one young couple nuzzling on a couch. “My people are free.”


"Not far away in the Alawite-dominated town of Harbiye, there is a new best-selling item that cannot seem to stay on the shelves: cheap tapestries bearing Mr. Assad’s portrait."

"The Alawites here are worried they could become easy targets. Historically, they have been viewed with suspicion across the Middle East by mainstream Muslims and often scorned as infidels. The Alawite sect was born in the ninth century and braids together religious beliefs, including reincarnation, from different faiths.

Many Alawites do not ever go to a mosque; they tend to worship at home or in Alawite temples that have been denied the same state support in Turkey that Sunni mosques get. Many Alawite women do not veil their faces or even cover their heads. The towns they dominate in eastern Turkey, where young women sport tank tops and tight jeans, feel totally different than religious Sunni towns just a few hours away, where it can be difficult even to find a woman in public.

“We’re more moderate,” explained Turhan Sat, a Turkish Alawite who works at a gas station in Bridgeport, Conn., and was on vacation in Turkey. He was swigging tea the other day in the leafy town square of Samandag, a predominantly Alawite town not far from the Syrian border."

[Opinion_counts]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/wo...pagewanted=all

Happened to read it this morning. If you look in the comments, somebody posted saying how the two groups have nothing to do with each other.

[Dynasty]

They are referred to as alevi in Turkey. They are shia. I don't know if they are the same as or similar to the alawites in Syria.

[Nautilus]

i always thought they were different groups, we have alavis in Pak too but they are diff than alawite of syria too.

[TimEricsson]

Many pakistanis have names ending with alvi, that doesnt not necessarily mean that they are some breed of shias, because alavi can refer to the the ghair-fatmi descendants of Hazrat Ali ..