▲ Tourist population in Gjirokastër district, southern Albania [Pixabay].

ESSAY / Jan Gallemí

Last November 24, 2019, the French government of Enmanuel Macron led the veto, together with other states such as Denmark or the Netherlands, to the accession of the Balkan nations of Albania and North Macedonia to the European Union. As justified by the President of the French Fifth Republic, this is because the largest issue of economic refugees entering France are from the Balkans, specifically from the aforementioned Albania. The latter country applied to the European Union on April 28, 2009 and on June 24, 2014 it was unanimously agreed by the 28 EU countries to grant Albania the status of a country candidate for accession. The reasons for this rejection are mainly economic and financial.[1]. There is also a slight concern about the diversity that exists in the ethnographic structure of the country and the conflicts that this could cause in the future, not only within the country itself but also in its relationship with its neighbors, especially with the issue of Kosovo and relations with Greece and North Macedonia.[2]. issue However, another aspect that has also been explored is the fact that the accession of Albania would mean the incorporation into the EU of the first state in which the religion with the largest number of followers is Islamic, specifically of the Sunni branch. In this essay we will proceed to analyze the impact of this aspect and observe how or to what extent Albanian values, mainly because they are primarily Islamic in religion, can combine or diverge with those on which the common European project is based.

Evolution of Islam in Albania

It is necessary to go back in history to take into account the reasons why a European country like Albania has developed a social structure in which the religion most professed by part of the population is Sunni. Because of the geographical region in which it is located, it would theoretically be more common to think that Albania would have a higher percentage of Orthodox population than Sunni.[3]. The same is true for Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Originally this region was mostly Orthodox Christian in the south (like most of the Balkan states today) due to the fact that it was one of the many territories that made up the Byzantine Empire until the 13th century, when this nation gained its independence. However, the reason why Islam is so present in Albania, unlike its neighboring states, is that it was more religiously influenced by the Ottoman Empire, successor to the Byzantine Empire. This fell in 1453 and its territories were occupied by the Ottomans, a Turkish people established at that time on the Anatolian peninsula. According to historians such as Vickers, it was between the 17th and 18th centuries that a large part of the Albanian population converted to Islam.[4]The reason for this, as John L. Esposito points out, was that for the Albanian population, changing their religion meant getting rid of the higher taxes that Christians had to pay in the Ottoman Empire.[5].

Religion in Albania has since been shaped by events. As far as we know from programs of study such as those of Gawrych in the 19th century, the Albanian society was then mainly divided into three groups: Catholics, Orthodox and Sunnis (the latter represented 70% of the population). During this same century many of the known nationalisms of European character were born and in the Balkans began what is known as the crisis of the East. During this period many Balkan peoples revolted against the Ottomans, but the Albanians, being identified with them by their religion, initially remained faithful to the Sultan.[6]. Because of this support, Muslim Albanians began to be pejoratively referred to as "Turks."[7]. This caused Albanian nationalism to distance itself from the emerging Ottoman pan-Islamism of Sultan Abdualhmid II. From this emerged, according to Endresen, an Albanian national revival called Rilindja, which sought the support of Western European powers.[8].

Generally, the Balkan independence movements that emerged in the 19th century reinforced Christian as opposed to Muslim sentiment, but in Albania this was not the case; as Stoppel points out, both Albanian Christians and Muslims cooperated in a common national goal .[9]. This fostered the coexistence between both beliefs (already present in earlier times) and allowed the differentiation of this movement with Hellenism.[10]. It should be noted that at that time in Albania Muslims and Christians were peculiarly distributed territorially: in the north there were more Catholic Christians who were not so influenced by the Ottoman Empire and in the south there was also a predominance of Orthodox because of the border with Greece. On November 28, 1912 the Albanians, being led by Ismail Qemali, finally declared independence.

The international recognition of Albania by the Treaty of London meant the imposition of a Christian monarchy, which led to the indignation of the Muslim Albanians, who according to estimates accounted for 80% of the population, and provoked the so-called Islamic revolt. The revolt was led by Essad Pasha Toptani, who declared himself to be the "savior of Albania and Islam" and surrounded himself with disgruntled clerics. However, during the period of World War I, Albanian nationalists soon realized that religious differences could cause the fracturing of the country itself and decided to break ties with the Muslim world with the intention of being able to have "a common Albania", which led to Albania declaring itself as a country with no official religion; this allowed for the training of a government with representation from the four main religious faiths: Sunni, Bektashi, Catholic and Orthodox. Albanian secularist elites programmed a reform of Islam that was more in line with Albania's traditions to further differentiate the country from Turkey, and religious institutions were nationalized. From 1923 onwards the Albanian National congress eventually carried out the changes from a perspective very similar to that of Western liberalism. The most important reforms were the suppression of the hijab and the outlawing of polygamy, and a different form of prayer was implemented to replace the Salat ritual. But the biggest change was the substitution of Sharia law for Western-like laws.

During World War II Albania was occupied by fascist Italy and in 1944 a communist regime was imposed under the leadership of Enver Hoxha. This communist regime saw in the different religious beliefs of the country a danger to maintain the security of the authoritarian government, and therefore declared Albania as the first officially atheist state and proposed the persecution of the different religious practices. In this way repressive laws were imposed that prevented professing the Catholic or Orthodox faith, and prohibited Muslims from reading or possessing the Koran. In 1967, the government demolished as many as 2,169 religious buildings and transformed the rest into public buildings. Of 1,127 buildings that had some connection to Islam at the time, only about 50 remain today, and in very poor condition.[11]. It is believed that the impact of this persecution subject was reflected in the increase of non-believers within the Albanian population. Between 1991 and 1992 a series of protests brought the regime to an end. In this new democratic Albania, Islam was once again the predominant religion, but it was preferred to maintain the non-denominational nature of the state in order to guarantee harmony between the different beliefs.

Influences from the international field

Taking into account the reality of Albania as a country with a majority Islamic population, we will now analyze the impact of its accession to the European Union and to what extent the values of both contradict or combine.

To begin with, if all this is analyzed from a perspective based on the theory of "constructivism", such as the one proposal by Helen Bull, it can be seen how Albania from the beginning of its history has been a territory whose social structure has been strongly influenced by the interaction of different international actors. During the years when it was part of the Byzantine Empire, it largely absorbed Orthodox values; when it was occupied by the Ottomans, most of its population adopted the Islamic religion. In the same way, during the de-Ottomanization of the Balkans, the country adopted currents of political thought such as liberalism due to the influence of Western European powers. This generated a desire to create a constitutionalist and parliamentary government whose vision of politics was not based on any religious morality.[12]. It can also be seen that the communist regime was imposed in a context common to that of the other Eastern European states. At the same time, it also returned to the democratic path as a consequence of the fall of the USSR, even though Albania had not maintained good relations with the Warsaw Pact since 1961.

Since Albania applied for EU membership, these liberal values have been strengthened again. In particular, Albania strives to improve its infrastructure and to eradicate corruption and organized crime. So it can be observed that Albanian society always adapts to being part of a supra-governmental organization. This is an important aspect because it means that the country is most likely to actively participate in the proposals made by the European Commission, without being driven by internal social values. However, this in turn gives a point in favor of those MEPs who claimed that the veto decision was a historical mistake. For if it does not alienate itself from the EU, Albania could alienate itself from other international actors. According to the MEPs themselves, these could be Russia or China.

However, there are two limitations to this statement. The first is that since 2012 Albania has been a member of NATO, so it is already partly alienated from the West in military terms. But a second aspect is more important, and that is that Albania already tried during the Cold War to alienate itself with Russia and China, but found that this had negative effects as it constituted a satellite state. On the other hand, and this is where Islamic values come into play, Albania today is part of organizations of an Islamic nature such as the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation). So the rejection of the EU could mean the realignment of Albania with other Islamic states, such as the Arabs or Turkey. Turkey's own government, currently led by Erdogan's party, has a neo-Ottomanist nature: it seeks to bring the states that formerly constituted the Ottoman Empire closer to its influence. Albania is being influenced by this neo-Ottomanism and a European rejection could bring it back into the bosom of this conception.[13]. In addition, if it approaches Middle Eastern Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Albania would run the risk of assimilating the Islamic values of these territories.[14]These are incompatible with those of the EU because they do not comply with many of the articles signed in the Universal Declaration of Rights of 1952.

Islam and the European Union

Another aspect would be to ask in which aspects do Islamic values contradict those of the EU? The European Union generally claims to be against polygamy, homophobia or religious practices that oppose the dignity of the person. This has generated, among other things, a powerful internal discussion of whether the hijab can be considered as a internship staff that should not be legally prevented. Many feminist groups are against this aspect as they relate it to family patriarchalism.[15]However, other EU groups claim that this is only a fully respectable individual internship staff and that its suppression would be a gesture of an Islamophobic nature. In any case, as mentioned above, Albania abolished both polygamy and the wearing of the hijab in 1923 as not reflecting the values of Islam in Albania.[16]. In this aspect it is observed that although Albania is a country of Islamic majority, this Islam is much more influenced by the Europeanist currents than by the Eastern ones: that is to say, an Islam adapted to the European customs and whose values are currently more similar to those of the neighboring Balkan states.

Some members of the European Parliament, generally from far-right groups, such as Ressamblement National or Alternativ für Deutschland, claim that Islamic values will never be compatible with European values because they are expansionist and radical in nature. The Dutch Geert Wilders claims that the Koran "is more anti-Semitic than Mein Kampf".[17]. In other words, they allege that those who profess Islam are incapable of maintaining good relations with other faiths because the Koran itself speaks of waging war against the infidel through Jihad. And as an example they cite the terrorist attacks that the Islamist group DAESH has provoked during the last decade, such as those perpetrated in Paris or Barcelona.[18]. But these groups should be reminded that a sacred text such as the Koran can be interpreted in many ways and that although some Muslim groups believe in this incompatibility of good relations with those who think differently, the majority of Muslims interpret the Koran in a very different way, just as happens with the Bible, although some very specific groups become irrational.

This is clearly the case in Albania, where since its democratization in 1991 there has been a national project integrating all citizens, regardless of their different beliefs. Rather, throughout its history as an independent country in Albania there has only been one period of religious persecution and this was due to the repression of communist authoritarianism. A limitation that could be given in this aspect would be the Islamic revolution that the country suffered in 1912. But it is worth noting that this revolution, despite its strong Islamic sentiment, served to overthrow a puppet government; after it no law was enforced to impose Islamic values on the rest. So it should be noted that the political model of Albania is very similar to the one exposed by Rawls in his book "Political Liberalism", because it configures a state with multiple values (although there is a predominant one), but its laws are not drafted based on any of them, but on common values among all of them based on reason.[19]. This model proposed by Rawls is one of the founding instructions of the European Union and Albania would be a state that would exemplify these same values.[20]. This was stated by the Supreme Pontiff Francis I at his visit in Tirana in 2014: "Albania demonstrates that peaceful coexistence between citizens belonging to different religions is a path that can be walked in a concrete way and that produces harmony and releases the best forces and creativity of an entire people, transforming simple coexistence into true partnership and fraternity".[21]. 

Conclusions

It can be concluded that Albania's values as an Islamic majority state do not appear to be divergent from those of Western Europe and thus the European Union. Albania is a non-denominational state that respects all religious beliefs and encourages all individuals, regardless of their faith, to participate in the political life of the country (which has much merit due to the significant religious diversity that has distinguished Albania throughout its history). Moreover, Islam in Albania is extremely different from that of other regions due to the impact that European influence had on the region. Not only that, but also the country seems very willing to collaborate on common projects. The only thing that, in the field of values, would lead one to think that Albania is not suitable to join the EU would be that, just as it was influenced by the actors that have interacted with it throughout its history, it would be influenced again by Muslim states with values divergent from the European ones. But this is more likely to be the case if the European Union were to reject Albania, as it would seek the support of other allies in the international arena.

The implications of the accession of the first state with a Muslim majority to the EU would certainly be advantageous, since it would encourage the variety of religious thought within the Union and this could lead to a greater understanding between the different beliefs that make up the Union. There would be the possibility of a greater presence of Sunni deputies in the European Parliament and it would help to enhance coexistence within other EU states on the basis of what has been done in Albania, as may be the case in France, where 10% of the population is Muslim. It should also be said that Albania's exemplary multi-religious behavior would seriously weaken Euroscepticism and would also help to foster concord within the Balkan region. As Donald Tusk has argued, the Balkans must be given a European perspective and it is in the best interest of the EU that Albania becomes part of it.