"A Vatican inside Tirana"/ Rama, for "New York Times": It will be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order

2024-09-21 13:22:00, Aktualitet CNA

"A Vatican inside Tirana"/ Rama, for "New York Times": It

A "little Vatican" is expected to be announced inside Tirana.

This was announced by the prestigious American media "New York Times", which conducted an interview with Baba Mondi and Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Baba Mondi has stated that he wants to turn a 27-hectare piece of land into a sovereign state with its own administration, passports and borders.

This has been confirmed by Rama, who announced that in the near future he will announce plans for the entity, which will be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order.

The head of the government has stated that the goal of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam that Albania is proud of.

"A Vatican inside Tirana"/ Rama, for "New York Times": It

Prime Minister Edi Rama

"We must take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance and which we must never take for granted," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Full New York Times article :

"Albania is planning a new Muslim state inside its capital!"

The Muslim cleric is preparing to lead what, if all goes as planned, will become the world's smallest country.

His hoped-for Muslim state in Tirana, the capital of Albania, will be a Vatican-style sovereign enclave that will control territory the size of five New York City blocks and will allow alcohol, allow women to wear what they want and not impose lifestyle rules.

“God forbids nothing; that's why he gave us his mind," said cleric Edmond Brahimaj, known to followers as Baba Mondi, explaining how he intends to rule over a 27-hectare piece of land that Albania wants to turn into a sovereign state with its own administration, passports and borders . Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says that in the near future he will announce plans for the entity, which will be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order.

"All decisions will be made with love and kindness," said Baba Mondi, 65, a former Albanian Army officer who is revered by millions around the world by his official title, His Holiness Haxhi Dede Baba. He is the main leader of the Bektashis, a Shiite Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkey, but now based in Albania.

Father World

In an interview, Prime Minister Rama said that the goal of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam that Albania is proud of. "We must take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance, and which we must never take for granted," he said.

A moderate Islamic microstate, the prime minister said, would send a message: "Don't let the stigma of Muslims define who Muslims are."

The territory of the proposed new Islamic state is a compound in a low-rent residential neighborhood in eastern Tirana. It is only a quarter of the size of Vatican City, currently the smallest country in the world governed by the Pope, an absolute monarch.

Baba Mondi said that "size doesn't matter," adding, "I don't need to be a dictator," though he acknowledged that the only meaningful limit on his authority will be God.

After plying the visitors with brandy, he pointed out that he made no claim to infallibility.

"Only God," he said, "makes no mistakes."

The almshouse contains a domed meeting and prayer hall, a museum that tells the history of the order, a clinic, an archive, and the administrative offices of Baba Mondi, a jovial man with a white beard who scorns rigid dogma.

Muslim extremists who plant bombs and use violence to spread their version of the faith, he said, "are just cowboys."

Combining a loose interpretation of the Koran with mysticism, elements of Turkey's pre-Islamic beliefs and devotion to their dead wise men, known as dervishes, the Bektashi moved their headquarters to Tirana from Turkey nearly a century ago after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic.

Viewed as heretics by many conservative Shiites and Sunnis and subjected to centuries of persecution in Muslim lands, the Bektashi have been a force in Albania and neighboring countries such as Kosovo and Macedonia since the Ottoman Empire's conquest of the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Members of the sect played an important role in awakening Albanian nationalism against Turkish rule, promoting a relaxed version of Islam that helped rally the country's large Muslim and Christian communities behind the secular cause of independence.

Although one of Europe's poorest countries, Albania has a long history of helping people in need, hosting Jews during World War II and Afghans fleeing the Taliban in 2021. Its international airport is named after 'Mother Teresa', the ethnic Albanian nun who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her charity work in India./ CNA