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I do wonder when an Albanian Muslim political party will emerge in Macedonia.
As seen by the protests early last year, the DUI is clearly out of touch and out of favor with the Albanian community, secular and religious.
There is a number of Albanians Muslims which I'm sure will want be represented politically in the near future. Which given the re-invigoration of Islam in the Balkans since the fall of communism, could get a few votes for the more politically Islamic inclined. Nothing to radically change the scheme of things, given the widespread secular, irreligious Albanian mindset among the youth and elderly alike, but enough for a potentially dangerous voice, a voice which it's leadership has encouraged followers to join up the fight in the Middle-East.
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Just on the note of Albanians and religion, whilst driving through the largely Catholic north of Albania recently, I felt there was truly nothing different from the "Muslim" parts. Visually, the towns were the same, and the people seemed no different. I probably went through 5/6 fairly large towns and could only spot 1 mosque and two churches from the car (not exaggerating), and this was driving for a few hours. The interesting thing is that in the Albanian Republic, the rough line when it comes to both religion and dialect (Gheg and Tosk) is the Shkumbin River, just south of Tirana. But, the Albanians of Macedonia and Kosovo speak Gheg Albanian and are largely Muslim. I would of thought that the difference in language would also mean the difference in religion, but I'm sure the history is a lot more complex than that.
Putting away all the tensions, the Albanian national history is a pretty interesting topic, religiously in particular.
As seen by the protests early last year, the DUI is clearly out of touch and out of favor with the Albanian community, secular and religious.
There is a number of Albanians Muslims which I'm sure will want be represented politically in the near future. Which given the re-invigoration of Islam in the Balkans since the fall of communism, could get a few votes for the more politically Islamic inclined. Nothing to radically change the scheme of things, given the widespread secular, irreligious Albanian mindset among the youth and elderly alike, but enough for a potentially dangerous voice, a voice which it's leadership has encouraged followers to join up the fight in the Middle-East.
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Just on the note of Albanians and religion, whilst driving through the largely Catholic north of Albania recently, I felt there was truly nothing different from the "Muslim" parts. Visually, the towns were the same, and the people seemed no different. I probably went through 5/6 fairly large towns and could only spot 1 mosque and two churches from the car (not exaggerating), and this was driving for a few hours. The interesting thing is that in the Albanian Republic, the rough line when it comes to both religion and dialect (Gheg and Tosk) is the Shkumbin River, just south of Tirana. But, the Albanians of Macedonia and Kosovo speak Gheg Albanian and are largely Muslim. I would of thought that the difference in language would also mean the difference in religion, but I'm sure the history is a lot more complex than that.
Putting away all the tensions, the Albanian national history is a pretty interesting topic, religiously in particular.
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