Hawzah News Agency – A meeting was held on "Sociological View of the Alawites of Turkey with the presence of Professor Ahmad Tashkin from Turkey, Professor Sayyed Abuzar Lab Labechi as well as prominent Shia scholars at the International Institute of Al-Murtadha in Qom on Wednesday, June 28. During the meeting different aspects of Alawite beliefs and sociology were discussed.

At the beginning of the session, Professor Tashkin addressed the challenges of Alawite studies and said, “Orientalists and Western scholars are trying to create a discord among Muslim sects and remove a group from the circle of Islam, which unfortunately some inside the Muslim community have fall for creating such rift.”

He continued, “If a Westerner would claim, for instance, that the Alawites are not considered as Muslims, we should not be happy about this; the religion of Islam has existed since the time of Adam. We do not have anything called before Islam and after Islam; all divine prophets were Muslims.”

Professor Ahmad Tashkin further said, “The basis of religion is the belief in the monotheism of prophethood and Islam is based on the faith in twelve Shia Imams (PBUT) and I believe in such doctrine, so Islam has survived with the blessing of the twelve Imams.”

He said, "In the discussion of the Alawites and their knowledge, it is the knowledge of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUT) and the education that takes place in an Alawite family from childhood and adolescence to death is entirely based on the life of the Ahl al-Bayt (PBUT); if such education does not play a role in his heart, It is not in the way of Lady Fatima (PBUH).

Ahmad Tashkin continued, “Alawites believe in the principles of Islam, of course, there are differences in the details of their beliefs, for example, they believe in the spiritual distortion of the holy Qur'an.”

Referring to the differences between different Alawite groups in Syria, Turkey and Iraq, he asserted, "More than fifty percent of the teachings of these groups are common."

It should be noted that during the meeting, professors and attendees raised questions and discussed problems, the main issue of why there was no systematic scientific resources and methods, as well as the reasons for the Alawites' distance from the jurisprudence of Prophet Muhammad’s family (PBUT), to which Professor Tashkin provided answers.

The Alawis, Alawites, or Nusayris are an ethnoreligious group primarily in the Levant which originated from Shia Islam. The Alawites revere Imam Ali (PBUH), considered the first Imam of the Twelver school. The group is believed to have been founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century.