TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, Dec. 21 – Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, also leader of the main opposition Socialist party, introduced a project on a new mosque for the Muslim Community in central Tirana.
The new mosque is planned to be built just behind the Palace of Culture situated at the Skanderbeg Square. The new mosque is supposed to allow for up to 2,500 people to pray at the same time.
The Muslim Community has always complained of not having a proper place for their prayers.
It was first President Bamir Topi and then Rama who offered their project on a new mosque, who said that would complete a religious triangle in the middle of the capital. First the Catholics built a cathedral and the Orthodox are still building it near the center.
Though it seems as an effort to be politically exploited from the opposition leader, it still is a sign of the religious peaceful co-existence in this tiny Balkan country. The isolated and often-derided country of Albania, with a Muslim majority amounting to about two-thirds of its three million citizens, has lately illustrated that small nations may often have great ideas, or, at least, may act responsibly in the face of major challenges that cause bigger powers to procrastinate.
In another sign of co-existence only recently the Albanian government welcomed the foundation of a new Jewish synagogue in Tirana. The synagogue was established by the Brussels-based Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) and named “Hechal Shlomo” after the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, who visited Tirana to participate in the official opening of the synagogue.
The RCE expressed delight over the opportunity for Albanian Jews to hold religious services in Tirana for the first time since the beginning of World War II. Albania had a small but long-established Jewish community, although Judaism, like all other religions, was mercilessly suppressed under the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha and his successors. With the fall of communism in the country in 1991, at least 500 Albanian Jews departed for the United States and Israel.
Albania today has between 150 and 250 Jews. The new synagogue will be led by Albania’s first-ever Chief Rabbi, Yoel Kaplan. Albanian president Sali Berisha had appealed to the RCE for help in establishing the synagogue and rabbinate during a visit to Brussels in April. Berisha said, “The Jewish Community is welcome to practice its religion and promote its culture in Albania, like every other religion.”
