Category: Kosovo

Kosovo: the Role of Religion in the Current Situation

Daut Dauti

What are the dynamics of religions in Kosovo today? In communist Yugoslavia there was a liberal religious policy compared to that of other communist countries, but religion didn’t play any role in society. Religion gave a flavour to the Kosovo war of 1998-99, but it wasn’t a defining factor. The Kosovo Liberation Army tried to keep religion out of the agenda because they had seen what had happened in the earlier wars involving Croatia and Bosnia. This was an outcome of their coming later into armed conflict. We should remember that Albanians were always historically divided among three faiths, without any strife among them. But since the war religion has been growing as a factor. Now Wahhabis (Muslim fundamentalists), with financial backing from Saudi Arabia, are trying to gain converts among Kosovans. Mosques are being built by Wahhabis, huge, in Saudi style, but in places where people don’t use them. Traditional Islam in Kosovo, influenced by the Bektashi Sufi movement, is very liberal: few hijabs are to be seen, and alcohol is available; there are a few minarets, but no visible signs of religion. One specialist observes that Kosovans practise Islam but think like Europeans. When Wahhabis arrive and say ‘you can’t be Muslims like this’ the Kosovans say ‘yes we can, we’ve been like this for 600 years’. Lord Byron said Greeks don’t recognise Albanians as Christians, but the Turks don’t recognise them as Muslims either. Bektashis are despised by Wahhabis for their liberalism, including their equal treatment of men and women. In Tetovo in 2007 a Bektashi house was seized by force by Wahhabis armed with Kalashnikovs. But, to repeat, this religious intolerance has developed since the war of the 1990s, especially since 1999. At the same time considerable numbers of people have been turning to neo-Protestantism and New Religious Movements. The religion which is losing ground in Kosovo is traditional Islam.

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Kosovo: the Background and Current Situation

Rigels Halili

The crucial date for understanding the Kosovo situation is not in medieval times but 1878. By the 1870s the Ottoman Empire was clearly disintegrating, and the Eastern Question was high on the agenda of the western powers, including prominently Great Britain. Although the origins of Albanian nationalism can be traced back a few decades earlier, it was only during the 1860s and 1870s that Albanian intellectuals made clear demands on a nationalistic basis. The Albanians were afraid that they would lose their Albanian-populated lands to the other emerging Balkan states. Albanian leaders formed the League of Prizren in 1878 to press for territorial autonomy and integrity.

Kosovo and Northern Albania were in the main focus of the Albanian nationalist movement during the second half of the nineteenth century because they were under threat from the territorial aspirations of Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia’s aspirations towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by the Austrian annexation of that province in October 1908, and the Serbs then focused their attention on Kosovo for expansion. In the First Balkan War (1912-13) Serbia, Montenegro and Greece laid claim to Albanian lands, and the Albanians declared independence. In 1913 the conference of ambassadors of the Great Powers in London granted Kosovo to Serbia and Çameria to Greece. In Serbia proper this was seen as the liberation of Kosovo from the Muslims. From that time Albanians in Kosovo, who were treated as Muslims, were encouraged to leave.

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The Current Situation in Kosovo

Liz Griffin

After the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999 an agreement led to the total withdrawal of Serbian troops, but independence for Kosovo was never an option. In 1999 the UN became the de facto government. There is still no decision, however, on whether Kosovo will become independent at some point in the future, or gain some special status within Yugoslavia. One basic problem is that the Kosovar Albanians want independence but the Serbs will not countenance this. There is a nominal framework in place in Kosovo for the Kosovars to run their own affairs, but in the absence of a decision on the future fate of the country this is not happening, and the UN is still running everything. There has been no progress in passing new laws or improving the political structures. In 1999 Kosovo was in fact a failed state. The Serbs had gone and the Albanians were debarred from participation in government for ten years. Education, social welfare, the military and the police had all collapsed.

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