TIRANA, Nov. 24 – The Muslim Community of Albania said this week it is working with state authorities to bring several unlicensed mosques under its supervision in order to avoid any more rogue radical preachers like the ones currently under trial for recruiting followers to fight in Syria.
Like thousands of other buildings across the country, many places of worship in Albania have been built without proper construction permits, and officials say they are conducting field verifications and working to make it easier for the officially-recognized MCA to administer and legalize any illegally-constructed Muslim places of worship.
The aims is to identify all mosques operating in the country and find those that are currently outside MCA control. The verification is needed because of the past 25 years in Albania have seen a lot of construction of places of worship, often without the proper licenses and with lack of transparency in funding.
Albania’s constitution guarantees freedom of religious practice for all, but the MCA is one of the five religious organizations granted a special official status from the Albanian state through an agreement with the State Committee on Religions.
The MCA’s values are also in line with Albania’s traditional religiously tolerant attitudes, whereas some mosques have been straying from these, experts say, causing the concern.
State officials say the MCA is the organization best able to provide imams for mosques around Albania because it can guarantee they will have the proper religious education.
The effort comes as a trial is underway for two self-appointed imams and five of their followers for allegedly recruiting Albanians to fight in the Syrian war. They, and several others, promoted hatred and urged violence, according to prosecutors.
The two imams served in mosques in the outskirts of Tirana, while the five other people arrested were detained in central and eastern Albania. All are accused of recruiting Albanian Muslims to fight in Syria’s civil war.
Albania is one of the least religiously devout countries in the world, according to several polls, and the country’s Muslim, Christian and nonreligious populations live in full harmony with each-other.
About 57 percent of Albanians declared themselves to be Muslim (Hanafi) in the last census. Less than 10 percent of the Muslim population went to a place of worship during the past year, however, according to poll numbers.
The head of the MCA, elected by a large board, serves of official leader, or Grand Mufti, for all Muslims in Albania. The current MCA head is Skender Brucaj, a former university professor.
The other state-recognized organizations are the Albanian Orthodox Autocephalous Church, the Roman Catholic Church in Albania, the Bektashi Order (a Muslim Sufist sect) and an association of Protestant churches known as the Evangelical Brotherhood of Albania.
