Kosovo - An "Islamic Land": What is the Reality?
Dorant Baca
Kosovo is a small country located in Southeast Europe, bordering Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. According to the latest census conducted in 2011 (a new census was conducted this year and will be fully published at the end of 2024), this multi-ethnic country is populated by 93% Muslim Albanians, 2% Catholic Albanians, 3% Orthodox Serbs, and 2% from other ethnic minorities such as Bosniaks, Turks, and Roma.
The Albanians of Kosovo, who thus constitute the majority of the population, are known for their strong national sentiment. Indeed, they were the ones who fought in the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) against the genocidal Serbian forces with the sole aim of reunifying with the Albanian motherland.
Without delving too much into the reasons for the war, we will address their relationship with Islam.
In Kosovo, since the end of World War II, Islam has constituted a secondary identity among Albanians. Indeed, an Albanian is first Albanian, then Muslim.
However, since the end of the last war, with investments from countries like Turkey and the Gulf states, Imams have aimed to re-establish not only a primary Muslim identity but also a sense of nostalgia for the Ottoman period. Based on this, a group of Albanians who disagree with these shifts has decided to create a movement, the "movement to voluntarily abandon the Muslim religion," also known as the "Deçan group."
Led by Arber Gashi, Vesel Lekaj, and Bojk Breca (formerly known as Pajazit Jashari), the movement calls on Albanians worldwide to return to their Catholic roots to save the nation from this new Islam that is taking hold. We do not yet know if this movement is successful, but what we can say is that dozens of Albanians are being baptized every day in Kosovo. Just this week, a hundred individuals were baptized in Gllogjan, a small village in Pejë. According to Arber Gashi, between 30% and 35% of the Albanian population in Kosovo has joined the movement and abandoned the Muslim religion.
We can draw a parallel here with Albania, which, according to the latest census, is no longer a Muslim-majority country (45.7% Muslims).
