Working Paper 84

Title
Von der Kultur zur Religion. Alevitische Identitätspolitik in Deutschland

Author
Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi

Department
Department ‘Resilience and Transformation in Eurasia’

Year of publication
2006

Number of pages
20

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Working Paper 84

Abstract
This paper discusses the question of the mobilising force of religious identity in the struggle of the Alevis for legal recognition in contemporary Germany. It shows how this struggle is embedded in larger – also transnational – political contiguities and how its modalities are influenced by social and political discourses going on in the majority society. The paper argues that the recent shift from a self-description as a cultural group to that of a religious community is not so much due to a regained strength of religiosity among the Alevis. It can rather be viewed as a response to changed public discourses in Germany and an adjustment to the prevailing legal and institutional conditions. PDF (296 KB)