Comments on: Elections in Albania (II)

By: Bardhi

Bardhi — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:43:29 +0000

I agree with Mihai and Georg on the religious issue. The last statistics (showing 70% of the population being Muslim) were taken before World War 2 and even those were probably not accurate since people were often officialy Muslim in order not to pay a tax under the Ottoman Empire and secretly Orthodox Christian or Catholics. I have no idea to what extent this phenomenon could have existed but I know it for a fact regarding my Muslim ancestors.

Today the majority of people are atheists or slightly supersititous, with the dominant religions being Islam (2 branches, I believe), Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This is also reflected in the national holidays (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Albania). Also the major religious event (not holiday) is a yearly pilgrimage at the shrine of Shna Ndua (Saint Anthony of Padua), a Catholic event in which about 200 thousand people take part every year, Catholics Orthodoxs, and Muslims alike (pictures: http://www.bevisfusha.com/bevis/gallery/shnando). Religion rarely plays any role (when so, mostly in rural areas) in marriages and almost never in personal relations…

Anyway, enough about religions. Doug, I am certain that the Nano-Berisha debate never took place. It was basically a debate on whether the debate would take place and both sides ended up by blaming the other for the failure. There will be separate interviews on a couple of TV channels I believe today & tomorrow for Nano, Berisha and Meta one after another, but never simultaneously in the same studio — unless an unexpected last-minute change (Saturday is a day of electoral silence).

By: Georg

Georg — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 17:45:27 +0000

While Albania is a majority Muslim country by historic (pre-1945) denomination, I’d agree with Mihai that grouping Albania with “Islamic countries” is to overstretch that fact quite a bit. After all, we’re talking here about what used to be “the world’s first atheist state” until 15 years ago – what followed since in religious terms could be described as a postmodern and individualistic free-for-all mixing islam, christianity, ancient superstitions, and modern esoteric fancy.

By: Mihai

Mihai — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:27:40 +0000

While your point about Albania being a majority Muslim country and having free elections is valid, I think that Albania is different from other Muslim countries. Firstly, it is much more secular than any other Muslim country (except perhaps Bosnia and Herzegovina), and also it doesn’t share Islamic or Arabic culture. Islam is not a big part of people’s lives as it is in other countries. Therefore, I don’t think it’s fair to Albania to *expect* it somehow to act like other Muslim countries or to commend it for being different, when Albania is a secular European country, with European culture.

By: reporteri

reporteri — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 03:27:32 +0000

Mr. Muir, send to Nano this article. You can win some money, not e few but much. And if you will write another one you could profit more. nano doesn’t serve gifts for friends.