Here’s hoping they succeed in propagating a tolerant version of Islam, but are the world’s jihadis more likely to embrace peace and tolerance, or to declare the Bektashi Sufis heretics?
“Albania announces plan to create a Bektashi-run Vatican City-like microstate,” Euronews, September 23, 2024 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
If all goes to plan, the so-called “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” will become the world’s smallest state, just a quarter of the size of Vatican City.
Albania will transform the Tirana-based Bektashi Muslims, an Islamic Sufi order, into a sovereign state to promote moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Sunday.
If all goes to plan, the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order will become the world’s smallest state, just a quarter of the size of Vatican City. The 10-hectare patch of land will have its own administration, passports and borders.
The new state would allow alcohol, permit everyone to wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules, reflecting the Bektashi Order’s tolerant practices.
Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself….
Dervish Baba Mondi, the current spiritual leader of the order, is set to be the leader of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order. He said decisions will be made with “love and kindness”.
In an interview with Euronews in 2018, he said: “being a Bektashi means being human. We have built our community basing it on the principles of peace, love, and mutual respect.”
Baba Mondi expressed hope that the US and other Western powers would recognise his state’s sovereignty. “We deserve a state,” Mondi said in a recent interview with The New York Times.
“We are the only ones in the world who tell the truth about Islam (and) don’t mix it up with politics.”
According to some estimates, there are between 7 and 20 million Bektashis worldwide, including some 12.5 million in Turkey.
somehistory says
Albania has an interesting history. According to Wikipedia, ‘Albania is a secular and religiously diverse country with no official religion and thus, freedom of religion, belief and conscience are guaranteed under the country’s constitution.: ”
More than 50% of the population are mozlum. This mozlum minority getting its own little ‘country within a country’ opens up many questions as to ‘why and what difference is it supposed to make?
OLD GUY says
Islam wants power and influence over the world. They see the Vatican as a source of power and are trying to copy that influence.
somehistory says
Sounds right, Old Guy.
FYI says
For starters the muslim Sufis will need to get rid of the classification of non-muslims as “the WORST of created beings” in koran 98:6.If they follow allah’s advice in koran 10:94{pickthall version} and check the sources,they could replace the koran with the Bible which at least contains the Law of Moses which allah completely missed..despite confirming the Torah in koran 3:3.
This is a problem for islamic scholars to explain:if allah CONFIRMS the Torah in koran 3:3 then how did allah MISS the entire contents of the Torah{=the laws of Moses,the 2 chief +ten Exodus laws}:the laws of Moses are NOT in islam.
Goofy says
A tolerant form of Islam sounds very promising.
However, we need to know what exactly the theology of Islam is before we can categorise sunsets of Islam into tolerant, very tolerant and whatever.
What exactly is the “Gospel” of Muhammad?
If you rid the Messenger’s message of commands to kill the Jews and other infidels, to humiliate them and to tax them how much have you got left?
Please educate me.
Frank Anderson says
Please consider a suggestion to read Bill Warner’s Abridged Koran. ANY reform, change, moderation of the “final, perfect, complete and unchangeable” teaching of Islam is blasphemy and apostasy both punishable by death. Only by lying to deceive Infidels to keep them deluded about Islam is this fraud allowed to continue without punishment.
Frank Anderson says
Please remember the general legal definition of fraud: An intentional misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact, with intention of inducing reliance, that does induce reliance, causing harm as a result of that reliance. The material fact that is being concealed is the violent teachings and practices of Islam which cannot be changed. People WISH Islam were “just like us” aspiring to peace and toleration where there are differences. 1400 years and between 250 and 1000 million dead people testify to the contrary. See, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl for explanation of “delusion of reprieve”.
Goofy says
Thank you for confirming my understanding.
I take it that the new project is one of deception.
There is no “Islam Light”!
Frank Anderson says
PLEASE do not take my word for it. I have read over 30 books from a spectrum of authors and discussed here for many years. But I am not an authority. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of books by those who are correctly identified as authorities. I suggest you start becoming your own authority to reduce your dependence on others.
Where “bearing false witness” is condemned in Judaism and Christianity, it is encouraged in Islam.
The Istanbulian says
I am sure the Turks will love this. Didn’t realize bektashis’ were their own ethnicity to deserve a state especially since Albania doesn’t believe Jews should have their own.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I remember years ago on this platform, when we used to have fiery debates w/ one anti-Serb activist regarding Kosovo, Bosnia and other things Serb+muslim related. She used to make the argument that the sufis were peaceful, even though world history of sufis shows otherwise. The Chechens in Russia are sufis, the father figure of the sufi movement in India Qhwaja Moin ud din Chisti was a warlord who used to slaughter cows outside Hindu temples to desecrate them, destroyed hundreds of temples in Ajmer and took a number of Hindu sex slaves. The Timurides – from Tamerlane to Babur to Aurangzeb – were all sufis, and they ran a pretty genocidal ship for Hindus (and later Sikhs as well, once it was founded)
Just like Judeophobia and Hinduophobia are good tests to determine how genuine a muslim is in terms of being reformed, one litmus test I’d use here would be the attitude of this “microstate” towards Christians in general, and Serbs in particular. If Orthodox Serbs can freely visit this place, practice their faith w/o being harassed, I’ll be impressed. Other things, like allowing alcohol, look impressive but may end up being nothing more than window dressing, if their attitudes towards their infidel neighbors are no better than other sufis worldwide
Hoi Polloi says
Here’s Albania openly stating that islam is intolerant. Would that more governments did the same.