Muslim Community cautious on new mosque

TIRANA, March 21 – The Albanian Muslim community held a meeting on Sunday where it covered some of the main issues in the daily agenda.
First they expressed their sorry for all the victims of the quake and tsunami in Japan.
But a main issue was the building of a new mosque in capital Tirana as pledged from the city hall.
The Muslim community hailed the ‘delayed’ decision from the city hall and also expressed some uncertainties on the issue.
The Tirana city hall and its Mayor Edi Rama, also leader of the main opposition Socialist party, have started an international tender on the project of building a big mosque in the capital, just behind the Palace of Culture close to the main Skanderbeg Square.
The decision was hailed by the Muslim Community but it also turned immediately into a political case of the daily squabbling. The governing Democratic Party denounced that as another electoral tool that Rama is making just ahead of the May 8 local elections in order to secure the support of the Muslim believers in the city.
The Muslim Community said that such a project is unclear until the license on the building place is issued. That should be followed with the expropriation of the land owners there.
They insisted that the new mosque in the city is obligatory and an indisputable right of the big Muslim community in the country.
Muslims makes most, or about two third of the Albanian population, followed by the Christian communities of Orthodox and Catholics. Albania is a well-known country for its religious coexistence and an issue Albanians should always boast of themselves.
For about a quarter of a century religion was banned under the former communist regime. Many religious leaders were executed or imprisoned, all the mosques and churches were either destroyed or used for other public services from 1967 until 1990.
The Muslim Community also denounced the census based on religious and ethnic criteria saying that would not serve to Albania’s social and political stability and integrity.
Many non-governmental organizations have also denounced the way such a census would be held. But the government postponed it from April to later this year justifying itself with the holding of the local elections in May.