Anne Barnard knows an `Alawite symbol when she sees one

"Mr. Haidar, a large, muscular man with a shaved head and a tattoo of an Alawite symbol, the sword of Imam Ali..."  My father, a non-practicing Shi`ite twelver, had a replica of the sword displayed on the wall.  Does that mean that he was an Alawite but his family did not know it, Ms. Barnard?