State-organised Religion and Muslims’ Commitment to Democracy in Albania

The author is grateful for financial support to Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), ReligioWest Project, and European Research Council (ERC grant agreement no 269860). The author would also like to thank the following individuals for their comments on various drafts of this article: Olivier Roy, Philippe Schmitter, Alfred Stepan, Cecilie Endresen, Olsi Jazexhi and Besnik Sinani.

Abstract

This article questions why, and indeed how, Muslims have committed to democratisation in post-communist Albania. The explanatory framework merges the theoretical insights of the moderation paradigm with the specific devices that characterise the post-communist religious field in investigating Muslims’ support for democracy. The empirical analysis draws on a within-case comparison of Muslims’ behaviour in three consequential stages of democratic transition—each marked by different configurations of institutional settings and ideological options, which we trace as potential explanations. The analysis suggests that institutional arrangements played the primary role. Yet, learning from the experience of dictatorship and from a ready pool of inherited Albanian-specific templates facilitated the consensual reclaiming of Islam in a local, pro-democratic, and pro-European manner.

Notes

The author is grateful for financial support to Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), ReligioWest Project, and European Research Council (ERC grant agreement no 269860). The author would also like to thank the following individuals for their comments on various drafts of this article: Olivier Roy, Philippe Schmitter, Alfred Stepan, Cecilie Endresen, Olsi Jazexhi and Besnik Sinani.

¹ The 2011 census reports the breakdown of religious affiliations for Albania’s total population as follows: 57.12% Muslim; 10.11% Catholic; 6.8% Orthodox; 2.11% Bektashi; 0.11% Evangelist; 2.5% of citizens declare themselves atheists.

² ‘Law on Major Constitutional Provisions’, People’s Assembly of the Republic of Albania, article 7, 1991, available at: http://www.ipls.org/constitution/const91/contents.html, accessed 18 June 2014.

³ ‘Për Një Shtojcë Në Ligjin Nr.7491, Datë 29.4.1991 “Për Dispozitat Kryesore Kushtetuese”’, article 18, Albanian Parliament, 31 March 1993, available at: http://licodu.cois.it/?p=367, accessed 30 June 2014.

⁴ Author’s interview with anonymous state official, Tirana, 5 November 2010.

⁵ Author’s interview with anonymous researcher and Muslim activist, Berlin, 17 January 2011.

⁶ In the early 1990s, more than 90% of the AMC budget came from external sources. Aid from Islamic countries also amounted to around half of total foreign investment, and over 5% of the Albanian GDP (Lakshman-Lepain 2002, p. 49).

⁷ Albanian Constitution, 1998, article 10, available at: http://www.ipls.org/services/kusht/cp1.html, accessed 18 June 2014.

⁸ Albanian Constitution, 1998, article 24, available at: http://www.ipls.org/services/kusht/cp1.html, accessed 18 June 2014.

⁹ ‘Për Krijimin e Komitetit Shtetëror Për Kultet’, Council of Ministers, No. 459, adopted on 23 September 1999, pp. 1–3, available at: http://kshk.gov.al/vkm-nr-459-date-23-9-1999/, accessed 15 December 2015.

¹⁰ ‘Për Organizatat Jofitimprurëse’, Albanian Parliament, no. 8788, 7 May 2001, available at: http://shtetiweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ligj_8788_07.05.2001OJQ.pdf, accessed 19 December 2015.

¹¹ ‘Ligj Për Ratifikimin e “Marrëveshjes Ndërmjet Këshillit Të Ministrave Të Republikës Së Shqipërisë Dhe Komunitetit Mysliman Të Shqipërisë Për Rregullimin e Marrëdhënieve Të Ndërsjella’, Albanian Parliament, Nr.10 056, 22 January 2009, available at: http://licodu.cois.it/?p=118, accessed 30 June 2014.

¹² ‘Deklaratë e Angazhimeve Morale të Përbashkëta’, Tirana, 18 March 2005, available at: http://www.albasoul.com/vjeter/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1697, accessed 15 December 2015.

¹³ Author’s interview with anonymous believer and researcher, Berlin, 18 February 2011.

¹⁴ ‘Miranda Vickers is Mistaken about Islam in Albania’, Muslim Forum of Albania, 13 November 2008, available at: http://www.forumimusliman.org/english/vickers.html, accessed 18 July 2014.

¹⁵ ‘Deklaratë e 41 imamëve të xhamive në vend’, Shekulli, 18 November, 2009, available at: http://www.arkivalajmeve.com/Deklarate-e-41-imameve-te-xhamive-ne-vend.352586/, accessed 15 December 2015.