Edi Rama announced the establishment of a Bektash monastery in Tirana like the Vatican in Rome, which, he says, would be a center of moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Mufti Jusufspahić believes that it is a business movement and an attempt to consolidate Albanians
The territory where the World Bektash Center is located in Tirana could become a new state - the Bektash state. It was announced by Edi Rama, the Albanian president, at the recent United Nations General Assembly in New York.
"Our goal is to turn the Bektash World Center into a sovereign state - a new center of moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence," said Rama.
"The dominance of the Bektashi Order is an important step towards strengthening values such as inclusion, religious harmony and dialogue in an increasingly divided world," according to the official announcement of this order in Albania.
There are five percent of Bektas in Albania
If it is established, that country will have an area of only 27 hectares, which is smaller than the Vatican. The Bektash World Center was founded in 1930, and is located in the eastern part of the Albanian capital.
The Bektashi are Islamic mystics who today profess a more liberal form of Islam.
According to the results of the last census in Albania, they make up about five percent of the population and represent the third largest religious community, after Sunnis and Catholics.
Rama's announcement was met with harsh criticism in the country, because the establishment of a microstate would require constitutional changes, but also among the Bektashi in Turkey, who see the Albanians as excessively liberal, and also in the Islamic community in Serbia.
Response in Serbia
"The Bektashis are not Muslims, they are a polytheistic movement, and anything that is not monotheism cannot be Islam," said on Saturday the president of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Community of Serbia, Muhamed Jusufspahić, on the occasion of Edi Rama's announcement.
He told Tanjug that the Bektashis in this case and in these times serve for all Albanians and that they are here a nationalist Albanian movement that at one point played one of the main lobbying roles in the story of the so-called independence of Kosovo.
He assessed that "all this is actually a fight against pure monotheism, a business movement to "make some money" and to consolidate Albanianism in all countries where Albanians live."
Who are the Bektashis?
Encyclopedia Britannica writes that the Bektashi are dervishes - Islamic mystics, whose order was founded in the 16th century in Anatolia, from where it spread to the Balkans during the Ottoman rule.
In the Ottoman Empire, they were also called the Bektash Corps. It was an elite military unit associated with taking boys and young men from the Balkans to education in today's Turkey, which was remembered as a tribute in blood.
Their patron, Baba Mondija, describes them as an Islam that is acceptable to the new age, to all people, because, as he said, they have no law except the law of love, alcohol is allowed, worship is not obligatory, women can dress as they wish. As such, they represent a link between the Western and Islamic worlds. Because of all this, some people call the movement hippie-Islam.
"Neither do they fast Ramadan, nor perform the five daily prayers, nor any of the Muslim religious rituals. As Allah has revealed in the Koran, they do not do it," Mufti Muhamed Jusufspahić said.
State organization
The world headquarters of the Bektashi in Tirana announced that it supports the initiative of the Government of Albania, which would recognize the Bektashi order "as an independent state with the power of self-governance, dedicated to supporting its centuries-old tradition of moderation and spiritual engagement."
It is also noted that the order of Bektas would thus gain sovereignty similar to the Vatican.
"For Bektashis around the world, this sovereignty ensures official recognition of their religious community and ensures the protection of their spiritual practices." This initiative is not about self-determination; nor do we seek influence or political power. "Instead, we seek the freedom to continue our centuries-old tradition of spiritual moderation and religious inclusion," the statement said.
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