England accepts Alevi Federation as charity to promote religious aims

The Charity Commission for England and Wales has accepted the British Alevi Foundation (BAF), an umbrella body of 12 Alevi centers in the United Kingdom, as a religious charity, giving the community a legal recognition that is denied to it in Turkey.

In a decision conveyed on Oct. 5, the Charity Commission ruled that the BAF and associated Alevi centers can promote the Alevi faith in accordance with the beliefs set out in the publication "Alevism" produced by the BAF. 

Announcing the decision in a press conference in London, BAF head ?srafil Erbil said the decision was important for the Alevi community in the U.K. as it extended legal recognition to the group as a religion.

"The legal recognition of [Alevism] as a religion and faith, and our cemevis [Alevi places of worship] being recognized as a house of worship ? gives our children the comfort in defining our belonging and identity," said Erbil. 

Erbil said the state's recognition would help future Alevi generations who would grow up and live in the U.K. to make clearer definitions of themselves. 

Defining one of the four characteristics of a religion as "a spiritual or non-secular belief system, held by a group of adherents, which claims to explain mankind's place in the universe and relationship with the infinite," the Charity Commission stated that the summary of the Alevi beliefs met these requirements by defining God as "Hak" (meaning the truth) and that they do not consider God as fixed into a place of worship, iconography or written books but that he is placeless, with the human heart being his only domicile.

The commission defined the second characteristic as "a spiritual or non-secular belief system which teaches its adherents how they are to live their...