Goal 2030 for Albania, first Muslim EU candidate country

Former ambassador to Paris (1992-1997) and former foreign minister (2005-2007), the 66-year-old novelist Besnik Mustafaj meets us in a café in the city centre: 'The communist regime had destroyed practically all places of worship. When democracy arrived, many were rebuilt. The Vatican and Greece financed the construction of a Catholic and an Orthodox cathedral. Missing from the list was a Grand Mosque. The choice fell on Turkey, also to avoid donations from the Gulf countries'.

Exponents of the Muslim community confirm this interpretation. Elton Karaj is 39 years old and is the imam of the only mosque that survived Enver Hoxha's dictatorship, that of Et'hem Bey on the famous Scanderbeg Square: 'We also accepted the Turkish donation because we share the same legal system with the Turks. Islam has four legal schools, which differ in the way they approach the interpretation of the Koran.

With Ankara, the Muslim community has insisted on maintaining control over religious appointments. On the other hand, the level of secularisation in this country of 2.7 million inhabitants is high. Veiled women are rare, at least in the cities; and Imam Karaj himself admits that only 5-10% of Albanian Muslims are practising. Interfaith marriages are frequent, at least among less observant people (they do not bother 79% of Albanians surveyed by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in a recent study).

History has made Albania an extraordinary crossroads of religions. The Line of Theodosius (395 A.D.) crosses the country, but instead of irretrievably splitting society in two, it has created a melting pot in which Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox have coexisted for centuries. In few other cities besides Tirana, perhaps only in Jerusalem or Sarajevo, is the singing of the muezzin from the top of a minaret overlaid by the ringing of the bells of the nearby Orthodox church.

The factors of undeniable religious tolerance are rooted in history. Albania is the only country in the Balkans where nationality is not associated with a religion (unlike Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs or Muslim Bosnians). In 1912, all religious communities associated themselves with the country's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire, sanctioned by the Vlora Assembly and drafted mainly by the Muslim Ismail Qemali.

Before the communist dictatorship, Albania had 600 mosques, today there are almost 900. Yet, there seem to be no fears of Islamic extremism. Analyses the imam of the Et'hem Bey Mosque: 'I know that in some Western European countries the risk exists. Muslims often originate from the Middle East, and have difficulty separating religion and culture (...) We here are influenced by other religions and European values - human rights, freedom of speech, gender equality'.

On the economic front, membership of the European Union still seems to be an uphill struggle, despite the efforts of the government of Edi Rama, who has just been re-elected to lead the country. The black economy, corruption, and mass emigration remain old worms. Some uncertainties also remain on the political side. Commenting on the recent legislative elections, the European Commission denounced 'electoral negligence'. The 2030 target will depend very much on the goodwill of the Twenty-Seven.

Former diplomat Mustafaj, whose latest novel has been translated into Italian by Castelvecchi Editore (In the Name of the Mother and Child), is close to the current opposition to the socialist government. He does not hesitate to criticise the premier, who in his opinion does not do enough to ensure the equal presence of the different religious communities in the executive, as was the case in the past. On Albania's accession to the EU, however, he is optimistic, despite the doubts of some because of the Muslim majority in the country.

'When I was based in Paris,' he recounts, 'I went to President Mitterrand to ask him if our joining the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) would hinder our accession to the EU. He asked me under what conditions we would join the organisation. I told him that the only condition would be respect for our constitution, which, by the way, does not provide for a state religion. After a moment's reflection, he replied that a European presence in the OIC would be a good thing',