Albania, neither a nation, nor an Islamic state

By Jerina Zaloshnja
Professor Klarisa De Wal, at the University of Cambridge, a fine connoisseur of the Balkans, in her last book for Albania Today, writes that the first foreigners to visit Albania following the collapse of communism thought that “the people lived in trees.” A long and inflexible isolation of this tiny Balkan state, was more than sufficient to build up a complex of perceptions, far from the Albanian reality. The world beyond the hermetically closed borders of the most Stalinist country in Europe, was indifferent to the voices, for the most part peripheral of foreigners who read about or visited a state that resembled a bunker: Marxist-Leninist groups. Following the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, despite the degree of attention the world may have paid over the years to a country like Albania, the world discovered a country and a people that were entirely different than what they had imagined. However, the misunderstandings continue on a series of issues, which have to do in particular with culture and identity. A French student, who did research in the Balkans told me how surprised he had been on arriving in Tirana. His surprise lay in the fact that he had been expecting to visit an Islamic country, a society organized on this religious identity. I told him that Albania is a poor country, but developing, often a very chaotic development, without any solid democratic traditions, but with a clear cut identity and culture, which is absolutely not based on religious belief. The French scholar is not the only one. It is not rare for journalists and politicians to write and speak about Albania, as a Moslem country, although they have never visited Albania or read anything serious about its history. To discuss whether or not Albania is Islamic is absolutely unnecessary. On the other hand, to admit that Albania is neither an Islamic country, nor an Islamic nation or even an Islamic State, is like saying,-as the great Russian writer Cehov said that, “horses graze on grass,” and “the Vollga runs into the Caspian Sea,” in other words, truths, which everyone has always known. But, why am I writing these lines? For the simple fact that there are some truths that the Albanians know that not everyone else does.
For example, yesterday a letter was made public, which several American lawmakers had sent the US President Bush. The Congressmen raise concern over democracy and the upcoming elections in Albania. They ask their President to be attentive towards Albania, as the biggest Islamic country in Europe, after Turkey, and a devoted supporter of the efforts of the Americans to fight terrorism. The second part of their argument is true: Albania has lined itself up in the fight against terrorism, without the slightest dilemma. But the first part of the argument is inaccurate. Albania is not an Islamic country and even less so, an Islamic State. It is, I believe, an exaggeration to remind people that there are Moslem countries which are not Islamic states. The American Congressmen naturally should be tanked for their attention paid to the democratic developments in our country. However someone should tell them that Albania is not an Islamic nation, nor does it have an Islamic society and, its only natural, that Albania is not an Islamic State.