A tiny percentage of Albania’s Muslims are being indoctrinated with the type of religious ideology that is entirely alien to this country and that is inherently un-Albanian. Authorities and the Albanian Muslim Community must increase their efforts to stop its spread and bring its followers back to traditional Albanian Islam, which is liberal, tolerant and European.
TIRANA TIMES EDITORIAL
Albanian religious values are based on tolerance. Much of that tolerance comes from the simple fact that the vast majority of Albanians that affiliate themselves with one religious denomination or another do so in name only.
That’s partly a result of a total ban on all religious practice from 1967 to 1991 by the country’s brutal communist regime, but also has its roots in Albanians’ traditional liberal approach to religious affiliation.
But even the small percentage of self- declared Muslims in Albania that actually practice their religion have throughout the history of Islam in Albania practiced the sort of liberal and tolerant brand of the religion spread by the Ottoman Empire, from which Albania declared independence in 1912. The vast majority of these practicing Muslims follow the guidance of the Albanian Muslim Community, the officially-recognized largest religious organization in Albania. The AMC is a typical Albanian religious organization – very liberal by global standards. It is led by progressive religious leaders, mostly taking the cues from the type of Islam practiced in Turkey. This week, its governing council chose a 37-year-old university professor as a leader who promptly made his views clear, saying: “The Albanian Muslim Community will continue to support and contribute to the development and progress of society. We are very aware that the future of Albania is to be part of the European family, and the example of Muslim believers will be positive toward that integration.”
However, a tiny percentage of practicing Albanian Muslims have apparently gone rogue, shunning the AMC for a more conservative type of practice based on ideology and the type of religious practice that is entirely alien to Albania. They have founded two or three independent mosques, creating tight-knit religious communities. Two of the preachers from this movement and several of its activists were arrested this week on charges of recruiting Albanians to go fight in Syria.
The roots of the radical imams and their followers can be found in the early 1990s, when Albania – which had just come out of a brutal communist regime that banned all religious practice – was seen as open ground for all sorts of religious missionaries – from east and west – who managed to get some followers, despite the fact that the vast majority of Albanians remained indifferent to religious practice.
Several young Albanians were also sent to study in countries that practiced a much different approach to religion than in their native land.
The AMC debated with and ultimately subdued and brought into the fold most of its more conservative wing, but obviously some left the organization altogether to create unlicensed mosques that practice the type of Islam most Albanians see as foreign to the country.
The AMC should do more to bring these elements under its umbrella too, so they can be guided by the country’s officially-recognized religious leaders. The authorities must also monitor to make sure the line between preaching and hate speech or incitement to violence is not crossed in these religious organizations – as the the men arrested this week appear to allegedly have done.
At the end of the day, it is now clear that a tiny percentage of Albania’s Muslims are being indoctrinated with the type of religious ideology that is entirely alien to this country and that is inherently un- Albanian. Authorities and the Albanian Muslim Community must increase their efforts to stop its spread and bring its followers back to traditional Albanian Islam, which is liberal, tolerant and European.
