Are Alawites Muslim?

[Sol]

?

[Blue3]

Why wouldn’t they be considered a branch of Shia Islam?

[PSOL]

They’re the Mormons of the Islamic world, in that their theology lies in local mysticism which later incorporated Islam so as to look respectable, and they did incorporate much Islamic theology. Yes, yes they are Muslim.

[Sol]

Why wouldn’t they be considered a branch of Shia Islam?

Certain heterodox tendencies, including a belief in reincarnation, a belief in the divinity of Ali, Drinking wine in a communion-like ritual, celebration of several non-Muslim religions, etc.

This video has a good, informed and neutral overview

[_.]

Traditional Alawites are not Muslim. They believe in a trinity, taking their veneration of Muhammad, Ali, and even Salman al-Farsi to claim their divinity, while the Qur'an says Allah (SWT) is one. This immediately disqualifies them as Muslims, and basically no mainstream scholar says they're Muslims, even among Shias.

Moreover, they celebrate Mass with bread and wine (like Catholics), and they say that they get reincarnated as animals or other humans after they die (like the Hindus). They don't even fast during Ramazan and they drink alcohol. None of this stuff is Islamic, it is unironically heretical and goes even against the basics. Furthermore, they have plenty of doctrines that they keep secret and we don't know.


There are lots of reformed ones though who are closer to the mainstream and may be Muslim.

[Blue3]

Who gatekeeps and decides who is and who isn't Muslim?

[Хahar 🤔]

It may come as a surprise that my answer to this question is yes. As Abdullah points out, the belief in the divinity of Ali conventionally attributed to them would put them outside the fold of Islam as defined by the shahada. It is, however, unclear that any of the beliefs attributed to Alawites are in fact actually held today.

When Hafez al-Assad took power, he took the attitude that Paris was well worth a Mass. An urgent priority for the Assad family has been making its heterodox religious background less of a liability, especially when seeking support abroad. Consequently the Syrian government has encouraged the assimilation of Alawites to conventional Twelver Shiism. This dovetails with a trend that has been clear throughout the history of Islam, which is that the processes of urbanization and modernization lead to traditional folk beliefs being supplanted by scriptural Islam. Traditional Alawite belief is not contained in any books or any schools, meaning that an Alawite who gets an education will be educated in conventional Islam. The Islam depicted and discussed on TV will be conventional. The effect throughout the world has been to make orthodox Muslims out of the formerly heterodox, and I would not expect Syria to be any different.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Don't they celebrate Christmas? That strikes me as pretty weird.

[Samof94]

Who gatekeeps and decides who is and who isn't Muslim?

Exactly. Where would the Nation of Islam fall??? Their beliefs are even weirder.