Parliament approves law on ties with religious communities

TIRANA, Jan 20 – The parliamentary law commission passed, on Monday, the agreement on arranging relations between the government and religious communities.
The meeting on the draft law lasted only several minutes with none of the lawmakers debating the articles but, rather, voting for approval.
The draft law is to be ratified by the parliament with a vote.
The separate agreements with each of the Muslim, orthodox and Bektashi communities (the law had been passed earlier with the Catholic community) aims at guaranteeing the independence of the religious institutions and protecting religious co-existence in the country.
The new agreement with the Muslim community asked it to guarantee prevent any extremist acts among its believers.
Albania, where religion was banned by the former communist regime from 1967 until 1990 when it fell, is known worldwide as a country where the different religious communities have lived in peace with each other.