New mosque proposal gets politicians talking

TIRANA, Nov. 22 – Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, also the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, said last week just ahead of a major religious holiday that a new mosque would be built in downtown Tirana. The news came as a surprise for many Muslims who have long been waiting for the announcement.
Rama also said that the new mosque would create a triangle of religious harmony in central Tirana, referring to the new cathedrals for the Catholics and the Orthodox, the latter still being built around the capital’s center.
The Muslim Community had yet to discuss the proposal and express an official position.
Rama said the municipality had a work plan ready to construct the new mosque behind the National Opera Building.
The request to build a mosque in the centre of Tirana has been a perennial demand of the Muslim community since the fall of the Communist regime in Albania in 1991.
In 1992, the then president, Sali Berisha, laid the first stone of a mosque to be constructed near Namazgja square, close to the parliament. However, construction was never completed after contesting the plans.
When the government granted the Orthodox Church public land in 2002 to build a cathedral, former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko promised that a mosque would also get a go-ahead.
Roughly 70 percent of Albania’s population are Muslims. About 20 per cent are Orthodox and 10 per cent Catholics. But the last religious census was done in the 1920s.
The announcement still raises some questions of why Rama made it at this moment.
Some would say it to get or secure some support from the Muslims ahead of the local elections next year. Others may say that is a counter-balance to Prime Minister Sali Berisha who is playing hard in every field.