TIRANA, Feb. 3 – The race to appoint the next leader of Albania’s Muslim Community was accompanied by debate, with Tirana’s Imam Ylli Gurra, who came second, speaking of a fake process, “affected by occult organizations.”
According to Gurra, it was through this fake process that Ylli Spahiu – previously vice president of the AMC – was appointed as the community’s new head, also after having gained the majority’s support from an initial trial vote.
Initially, five candidates were running, but the Kukes Imam and Skender Brucaj – head of the AMC over the last five years – dropped the race unexpectedly.
Brucaj announced his decision unexpectedly, a few hours before Saturday’s vote.
“I am of the opinion that among you there are people who are more fit to carry out this heavy and responsible duty. This is why I decided yesterday to withdraw from the race in order to open a new way, not just a rotation, but also to the honorable theologians who have graduated the best Islamic universities in the world,” Brucaj said.
At the end of the vote, Spahiu received 59 votes versus the 26 votes that Gurra received and the two votes of the third contender, Lushnja Imam, Gramoz Blliku.
“Today we are facing a fact of the capturing of an institution. The head of the AMC cannot be appointed by occult organizations,” Gurra told journalists after losing the race.
In answering journalists’ questions regarding which these organizations are, Gurra mentioned adherers of Fethullah Gulen and other Turkish Islamic organizations which he believes are looking to take over the AMC’s autonomy.
According to him, the same happened five years ago during the last race when Brucaj won – a development he claimed was “imposed” to the AMC. He further claimed Brucaj had done nothing of benefit for the AMC during his presidency.
“We have seen nothing in the community, loss of property, starting from the center of Tirana, excluding any kind of cooperation. Even those few incomes are channeled unknowingly outside of the community’s target, payments that pass without real transparency by the leadership,” said Gurra.
The newly-elected Spahiu said on his side he will give “his best efforts to be a good Albanian.”
“It will be my primary job to preserve and strengthen the harmony and interreligious dialogue in Albania,” he declared.
Spahiu graduated in Istanbul, where he studied from 1992-1996. He then completed his Undergraduate and Postgraduate Theological Studies at Egypt’s Ezher University in 2003, to later serve with the Muslim Community of Albania.
On Saturday, the opposition also blamed government influence concerning Brucaj’s decision to withdraw from the race at the last moment.
Opposition’s Democratic Party MP Genc Pollo said following this decision that the government is Quisling pressuring the Muslim community by getting rid of those they cannot control.
“I wish the assembly of Albanian imams saves its dignity and orientation and refuses any kind of Trojan horse,” Pollo said.
Earlier on, DP MP Ervin Salianji, who belongs to the biggest part of the opposition lawmakers that resigned their parliamentary mandates last week, blamed Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama of trying to influence the AMC.
“Tomorrow, the AMC will be going through elections, but it is very clear the government is intervening, in the same manner as if it were the parliamentary elections!,” Salianji said.
The country’s opposition is holding anti-government rallies for over a week now, demanding the resignation of Rama, the establishment of a caretaker government and early elections.
To back up their demands, most opposition lawmakers gave up their mandates, leaving only the majority in parliament and leading the country in what the international community has valued as deadlock.
The opposition, however, is accusing the government of having strong ties with criminal rings in the country that afforded them the last parliamentary elections and the arrival to power, as per reports published by the Voice of America concerning Serious Crimes Prosecution investigations on SP officials and ballot buying.
The AMC race eventually took place among four candidates – Bujar Spahiu, vice president of the AMC over the last ten years, Ylli Gurra, a Tirana-based imam, Gramoz Blliku, a Lushnja imam and Islam Hoxha.
