and the central place is not for God, but for human-ity. We are humanists. And we favour the separation of Church and State. All of this makes us ‘different’ – enough reason, so it seems, for us to be treated as outcasts.

I have mixed values. My upbringing was Turkish-Alevi, but I am also strongly European. For me, every-thing began falling into place when at my Saint-Gilles school I followed a cours de morale (civics lesson). The freedom, equality and fraternity so central to European education were already familiar to me through my Alevi upbringing. From a human rights point of view, Europe is still ahead, but unfortunately

10 there to here

THE BULLETIN April / May 2011

TurkishWhen pressed about what

exactly he considers to be his

identity, the Saint-Gillois saz

player Harun Özdemir will say

that he is ‘Alevi’. But he doesn’t

make a big thing of it. When

people take him to be Turkish, he lets them. His grandfather was one

of the pioneers of Turkish migration to Belgium and helped many with

information and papers. But he too was first and foremost an Alevi,

who gave his grandson certain values. Today, there are about 400 Alevi

families living in Brussels.

shuttersto

ck

Brussels identities from A to Z

‘Everyone is

a minority

here. No one

can speak in

the name of a

majority’

“I never sponta neously present myself as an Alevi. It’s not in our nature to do so, and what’s more, in a Sunni-dominated country

like Turkey – or in its equally Sunni-dominated diaspora – it is simply not wise to showcase yourself as an Alevi. After all, the time when Turkey was still perse-cuting the Alevi is not far behind us. For the moment, pressured by the European Union, Turkey tolerates the Alevi who with their 22 million make up a third of the population. But the Alevi, who were named after Ali, the Prophet’s murdered son-in-law, are still looked down upon as heretics. We are not good Muslims, so it is still felt. It’s true that we’re unlike the others. Like other Muslims we believe in Allah, of course. But we do not follow the Qur’an, go to the mosque, or pray five times a day. What’s more, in our commu-nity, men and women are perfectly equal;

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11

Interview by Veerle Devos & Kristof Dams

Image by Veerle Devos

In praise of: • Brasserie de l’Union

(55 Parvis de Saint-Gilles) named after the formerly

invincible football club L’Union Saint-Gilloise.

Those glory days, alas, are long over, but anyway, they still keep open house here.

Everyone talks to everyone else. At the weekend I love

to sit on the brasserie’s terrace and watch the mix of people at the market on

the Parvis.

• I play the saz and sometimes perform at Sazz

n’ Jazz (241, Rue Royale, Schaerbeek), or I watch

other artists there. Here again, that typical Brussels

mix of artists. I see the same mélange in the music

store Adagio (71, Rue des Eperonniers) where

they sell instruments from around the world. I

didn’t even know about the existence of some of

them. From the most remarkable to the most

simple. Enough to make you drool.

• My hangout as an Alevi: the Centre socioculturel Alévi de Bruxelles (439,

Chaussée de Mons). A free haven for all the Alevi of Brussels and open to all

those interested.

you feel that more and more it is beginning to betray its roots. Europe still pays lip service to human rights, but more and more it’s the economy that has become central in European thought, overriding everything else. A bad evolution, as it tends to corrode people’s morals: more and more, it is ‘each one for himself ’. I think of Brussels as one of those places where an alternative can grow. Here, after all, so many differ-ent people are living together, that a new society with a strong moral code is almost bound to come to life. Everyone is a minority here, no one can speak in the

name of a majority. Brussels is one great big mixed salad, and this opens up inter-esting perspectives.

Mind you, I’m not naive: most Brussels denizens keep too much to their own community, some even live in real ghet-tos where everyone spies on everyone else – I’m not free from this either. In the Turkish community I get a lot of remarks: “I haven’t seen you in the mosque, ever”, those kinds of things. And when I sit out at one of the bars on the Parvis de Saint-Gilles and have a beer with my wife Duyuş, you can simply feel the disapproving gaze of many of the Turks. But then, that’s not only true for the Turks. European civil servants, too, live in a ghetto. The whiter-than-white commune of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert is as much of a ghetto as Arab Molenbeek. We must break through this suffocating, mistrusting, negative ghetto mentality. Because if we don’t, Brussels doesn’t have much of a future. But I’m quite confident that we will. Minorities in Brussels often give the good example. Take the Dutch speakers who go to live in Molenbeek between the Moroccans. Let us follow that example. Let us all mingle. I also believe in a good, strong educa-tion. Make it compulsory for every child to attend a cours de morale. Every child should learn about the basic conditions for living together in a humane fashion. That would already make a big change. And you must start early: ten year olds ought to be trained in moral decision-making and in dealing with diversity. Brussels is the ideal place for this. Thanks to the mix of people different from yourself you can immedi-ately put the theory into practice. And I’m speaking from experience: I myself teach music in the Alevi centres of Anderlecht and Charleroi. Music is such a great carrier of values, history, insights. In Brussels, I would like to build one great centre for the cultural expression of all the inhabitants of Brussels. After all, it’s through music, dance, gastronomy, theatre that people can learn to sense the essence of the other.”

Harun in front of Saint-Gilles city hall: “I was born and raised in Saint-Gilles, and I love this community.”

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