Turkish Sunni-Alevi Dialogue Methodology: A Proposal for Projects Using Qur'an Citations in Classical Alevi Sources

The prospect of Sunni-Alevi inter-Muslim dialogue can be a sustained long-term project and is not a novel concept in Turkey: there has been official and academic activity in this regard. What may appear to be deficient is the existence of ideologies for inter-Muslim dialogue and reconciliation and also long-term strategies and technique for this. Ideologies for inter-Muslim dialogue can be gleaned from existing activist and academic sources, including existing material for peace-building and interfaith dialogue also borrowing from other material describing interfaith dialogue methodology. In the case of Sunni-Alevi dialogue, a strategic focus on Qur'anic content found in classical Alevi sources presents a promising option for dialogue material that could be of interest both to Sunnis and Alevis. Academia presents a major potential to foster this dialogue and to benefit from hosting it. Various existing organizational methodologies can be used in this regard and they can be augmented with additional existing methodologies, roundtables and focus groups, benefiting academic production as well as understanding between Sunnis and Alevis.