Albania plans to create its own Vatican. This one, however, will be Muslim.
The New York Times reported that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will announce plans for a sovereign microstate within its capital Tirana that will follow the practices of the Bektashi Order, a Shiite Sufi order founded in 13th century Turkey.
If everything goes according to plan, the so-called “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” will become the smallest country in the world, only a quarter of the size of the Vatican. The 10-hectare land will have its own administration, passports and borders, writes Euronews.
The new state would allow alcohol, allow women to wear what they want, and impose no rules on lifestyle, reflecting the tolerant practices of the Bektashi Order. Rama said that the goal of the new state is to promote a tolerant version of Islam that Albania is proud of.
“We should take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance, and which we should never take for granted,” he told The New York Times.
The history of the Bektashi dates back to the 13th century Ottoman Empire, but almost a century ago, the Order’s headquarters moved to Tirana after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, banned it from entering Turkey.
The Bektashi order has a long mystical tradition in Albania. They were supported by Janissaries, elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire mostly recruited from the Christian areas of the Balkans. The Sufi faith does not force devotees to observe the fundamentals of traditional Islam.
However, tolerance did not lead to protection from persecution. For hundreds of years, believers have come under pressure – whether their masters were Christian, Muslim or atheist – that drove them to neighboring countries like Kosovo and Macedonia since the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The Bektashis are devoted to wise men, known as dervishes. Dervish Baba Mondi is the current spiritual leader of the order. His followers know him by his official title, His Holiness Hajji Dede Baba.
Baba Mondi should be the leader of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order. He says that decisions will be made with “love and kindness”. In an interview with Euronews in 2018, he said that “to be a Bektashi is to be human. We built our community based on the principles of peace, love and mutual respect.”
A team of experts is working on legislation defining the sovereign status of the new state within Albania. Rama’s ruling Socialist Party will also have to support him.
Baba Mondi expressed the hope that the United States (U.S.) and other Western powers would recognize the sovereignty of his country.
“We deserve a state. We are the only ones in the world who tell the truth about Islam and don’t mix it with politics,” Baba Mondi told The New York Times, Klix.ba writes.
Photo: SEEWEB
