If Albania can show the world how faiths may coexist – as the Pope said on his visit – it is because history has taught its people to regard religious dogmas with ambivalence.
If you want to know how much Albania and Kosovo differ, look no further than religion. If you want to know what can Albania teach Kosovo on the subject, the answer is plenty. In 2012, the US-based Pew Research Center published a report titled “The World’s Muslims: Unity and Diversity.” It revealed fascinating insights about religion in Muslim countries around the world. The most interesting of all was Albania. When asked if religion mattered in their lives—the main question of the survey—only 15 per cent of respondents in the country answered positively. Of the 39 countries included in the survey, religion had the lowest importance in peoples’ lives in Albania. By contrast, 44 per cent of Kosovars said that religion mattered to their lives, making Kosovo as much as three times more religious than Albania.
In addition, only 7 per cent of Albanians (the second lowest percentage in the Muslim world after Kazakhstan) said they prayed several times a day. In Kosovo, 43 per cent of respondents said they prayed several times a day, more than Bosnia and Herzegovina and on par with Turkey. When it came to Ramadan, a whopping 76 percent of Kosovars said they fasted regularly compared with 44 per cent in Albania. The two countries could not be more different when it comes to religious attitudes. But then again, when it comes to faith, Albania shows not only Kosovo but the rest of the world how the followers of many religions can coexist without strife.
When Pope Francis visited Albania on Sunday, one of the most photographed signs among the crowds in Tirana, read: “I believe in the Bible and the Koran because I am an Albanian.” Another picture that circulated in the international media showed the Pope standing in front of a crowd where three leaders of their respective faiths in Albania stood shoulder to shoulder looking toward the pontiff. The picture of an imam standing next to Catholic and Orthodox priests, listening attentively to a lecture by the head of the Catholic faith, is the kind of picture that the world desperately needs to see more of.
It was the pontiff’s first visit to a European country since he was elected head of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013. He said that he chose to kick-off his European tour in Albania because the country was an exemplary model of the peaceful coexistence of faiths, where harmony and mutual understanding have underscored a religious mosaic that continues to fascinate and inspire interfaith dialogue. But this fascination and curiosity is often wrapped in inadequate explanations as to why the country came to be the way that it is.
Much has been made about Albania’s paranoid, Communist, and fervently anti-religious leader, Enver Hoxha, who launched a systematic campaign to uproot all religious life in the country, turning Albania into the world’s first atheist state. Thousands of religious sites, monasteries, churches and mosques were either destroyed or turned into “cultural centres” for young people. Clergy were persecuted, imprisoned and killed. Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution in 1976 stated: “The State recognises no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in the people.”
Hoxha’s extreme views on religion even surprised Joseph Stalin. The Soviet leader had completely abandoned religion after first studying in a seminary. But even Stalin was taken aback by Hoxha’s anti-religious fervor. During a meeting between the two in Moscow on March 21, 1949, Stalin advised Hoxha to be more careful and “not to offend feelings of religious people”.
It is of course unwise to dismiss the tremendous and traumatic effect that this systematic anti-religious campaign may have had on Albanians and on their attitudes toward religion over the past 50 years. To a certain degree, the relaxed and often indifferent stance they show towards faith today reflects half a century of anti-religious propaganda and intimidation, which may have deterred hundreds and thousands from practicing any religion.
But to truly understand the peculiar roots of the Albanian religiosity or ambivalence about it, one has to dig deeper into the past. For much of its history, Albania was part of a region that was a battleground of clashing civilizations, from the Romans to the Ottomans. These shifting winds of fortune meant Albanians had to adapt to changing circumstances and, when caught between west and east during the Middle Ages, the country switched between the Catholic and Orthodox faith, depending on which side ruled the region. From the 13th century onwards, when the Ottomans invaded much of the Balkans, Albania gradually embraced Islam.
Over many generations, this ambivalence about religion became ingrained in their culture. During one of Lord Byron’s visits, in the summer and fall of 1809, his traveling companion quoted a previous traveler who was struck with one peculiarity of the Albanians: they simply could not make up their minds about which major religion, Islam or Christianity, they should follow. Instead, he wrote, “ to be certain they don’t reject the truth, they very prudently follow both”, and “go the mosques on Fridays and to the church on Sundays.”
It is no surprise, then, that during their long and arduous history Albanians learned to accept more than one religion at a time while never fully immersing themselves in any particular faith. The sign in Tirana reading: “ I believe in the Bible and Koran because I am an Albanian,” is not just an empty slogan. It is an echo that resonates with the country’s past and with a tradition that was built over many centuries. Today it serves as a call for peace in a world that is burning again in the name of religion and of God.