Muslims welcome the start of Ramadan

TIRANA, July 5 – Muslims in Albania have welcomed the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, prayer and contemplation for followers of Islam worldwide.
Ramadan started Saturday, with the first public fast-breaking meals, or iftar dinners and special prayer ceremonies.
Mosques across the country have been decorated with lights for the month, and crowds filled the historical Ethem Bey mosque in the capital city, Tirana in the first tarawih prayer, extra prayers performed by Muslims at night during Ramadan.
There are no statistics as to how many Albanians fast for Ramadan, but only 10 percent of the population said religion played a very important part of their lives, according to a recent study.
Muslims make up about 57 percent of Albania’s population, according to the 2011 census. They live in full harmony with Christian Albanians and citizens with no religious affiliation. Albania is well known for its religious harmony and liberal attitudes toward religious practice.
Like the rest of the country’s religious communities, however, Muslims were forced to renounce all religious practices under the brutal communist regime of Enver Hoxha. Religion was banned in communist Albania from 1967 until just before the fall of the dictatorship in 1990.