Religion in Albania

Antiquity Christianity spread to urban centers in the region of Albania, at the time composed mostly Epirus Nova and part of south Illyricum, during the later period of Roman era and reached the region relatively early. St. Paul preached the Gospel 'even unto Illyricum' (Romans 15:19). Schnabel asserts that Paul probably preached in Shkodra and Durrës. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus) led to the creation of a local bishopric in 58 AD. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and Scodra (modern Shkodra). One notable Martyr was Saint Astius, who was Bishop of Dyrrachium, who was crucified during the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Trajan. Saint Eleutherius (not to be confused with the later Saint-Pope) was bishop of Messina and Illyria. He was martyred along with his mother Anthia during the anti-Christian campaign of Hadrian. From the 2nd to the 4th centuries, the main language used to spread the Christian religion was Latin, whereas in the 4th to the 5th centuries it was Greek in Epirus and Macedonia and Latin in Praevalitana and Dardania. Christianity spread to the region during the 4th century, however the Bible cites in Romans that Christianity was spread in the first century. The following centuries saw the erection of characteristic examples of Byzantine architecture such as the churches in Kosine, Mborje and Apollonia. Christian bishops from what would later become eastern Albania took part in the First Council of Nicaea. Arianism had at that point extended to Illyria, where Arius himself had been exiled to by Constantine. Middle Ages Since the early 4th century AD, Christianity had become the established religion in the Roman Empire, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. Ecclesiastical records during the Slavic invasions are slim. Though the country was in the fold of Byzantium, Christians in the region remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. In that year the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by archbishops of the region because they had supported Rome in the Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the church of the province from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of Constantinople. When the East-West schism separated the Western Christianity from Greek Christianity, southern Albanian regions retained their ties to Constantinople while the northern areas reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. . The Albanians first appear in the historical record in Byzantine sources of the 11th century. At this point, they are already fully Christianized. Most Albanian regions belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church after the schism, but regional Albanian populations gradually became Catholic to secure their independence from various Orthodox political entities and conversions to Catholicism would be especially notable under the aegis of the Kingdom of Albania. Flirtations with conversions to Catholicism in Central Albanian Principality of Arbanon are reported in the later 12th century, but until 1204 Central and Southern Albanians (in Epirus Nova) remained mostly Orthodox despite the growing Catholic influence in the north and were often linked to Byzantine and Bulgarian state entities Krujë, however, became an important center for the spread of Catholicism. Its bishopric had been Catholic since 1167. It was under direct dependence from the pope and it was the pope himself who consecrated the bishop. Local Albanian nobles maintained good relations with the Papacy. Its influence became so great, that it began to nominate local bishops. The Archbishopric of Durrës, one of the primary bishoprics in Albania had initially remained under the authority of Eastern Orthodox Church after the split despite continuous, but fruitless efforts from Rome to convert it to the Latin Church. After the Fourth Crusade established Regnum Albaniae, officially Catholic However, things changed after the fall of Byzantine Empire in 1204. In 1208, a Catholic archdeacon was elected for the archbishopric of Durrës. After the reconquest of Durrës by the Despotate of Epirus in 1214, the Latin Archbishop of Durrës was replaced by an Orthodox archbishop. According to Etleva Lala, on the edge of the Albanian line in the north was Prizren, which was also an Orthodox bishopric albeit with some Catholic parochial churches, in 1372 received a Catholic bishop due to close relations between the Balsha family and the Papacy. , built by the Byzantines after a military victory After the Fourth Crusade, a new wave of Catholic dioceses, churches and monasteries were founded, a number of different religious orders began spreading into the country, and papal missionaries traversed its territories. Those who were not Catholic in Central and North Albania converted and a great number of Albanian clerics and monks were present in the Dalmatian Catholic institutions. The creation of the Kingdom of Albania in 1272, with links to and influence from Western Europe, meant that a decidedly Catholic political structure had emerged, facilitating the further spread of Catholicism in the Balkans. Around 30 Catholic churches and monasteries were built during the rule of Helen of Anjou, as Queen consort of the Serbian Kingdom, in North Albania and in Serbia. New bishoprics were created especially in North Albania, with the help of Helen. As Catholic power in the Balkans expanded with Albania as a stronghold, Catholic structures began appearing as far afield as Skopje (which was a mostly Serbian Orthodoxy city at the time) in 1326, with the election of the local bishop there being presided upon by the Pope himself; in the following year, 1327, Skopje sees a Dominican appointed. In 1332 a Dominican priest reported that within the Kingdom of Rascia (Serbia) there were two Catholic peoples, the "Latins" and the "Albanians", who both had their own language. The former was limited to coastal towns while the latter was spread out over the countryside, and while the language of the Albanians was noted as quite different from Latin, both peoples are noted as writing with Latin letters. The author, an anonymous Dominican priest, writing in favor of a Western Catholic military action to expel Orthodox Serbia from areas of Albania it controlled in order to restore the power of the Catholic church there, argued that the Albanians and Latin and their clerics were suffering under the "extremely dire bondage of their odious Slav leaders whom they detest" and would eagerly support an expedition of " one thousand French knights and five or six thousand foot soldiers" who, with, their help, could throw off the rule of Rascia. Although Serbian rulers at earlier times had at times relations with the Catholic West despite being Orthodox, as a counterbalance to Byzantine power, and therefore tolerated the spread of Catholicism in their lands, under the reign of Stefan Dušan the Catholics were persecuted, as were also Orthodox bishops loyal to Constantinople. The Catholic rite was called Latin heresy and, angered in part by marriages of Serbian Orthodox with "half-believers" and the Catholic proselytization of Serbians, Dušan's Code, the Zakonik contained harsh measures against them. However, the persecutions of local Catholics did not begin in 1349 when the Code was declared in Skopje, but much earlier, at least since the beginning of the 14th century. Under these circumstances the relations between local Catholic Albanians and the papal curia became very close, while the previously friendly relations between local Catholics and Serbians deteriorated significantly. Between 1350 and 1370, the spread of Catholicism in Albania reached its peak. At that period there were around seventeen Catholic bishoprics in the country, which acted not only as centers for Catholic reform within Albania, but also as centers for missionary activity in the neighboring areas, with the permission of the pope. Renaissance Christianity was later overshadowed by Islam, which became the predominant religion during the invasion from the Ottoman Empire from the 15th century until the year 1912. Many Albanians embraced Islam in different ways. Albania differs from other regions in the Balkans in that the peak of Islamization in Albania occurred much later: 16th century Ottoman census data showed that sanjaks where Albanians lived remained overwhelmingly Christian with Muslims making up no more than 5% in most areas (Ohrid 1.9%, Shkodra 4.5%, Elbasan 5.5%, Vlora 1.8%, Dukagjin 0%) while during this period Muslims had already risen to large proportions in Bosnia (Bosnia 46%, Herzegovina 43%, urban Sarajevo 100%), Northern Greece (Trikala 17.5%), North Macedonia (Skopje and Bitola both at 75%) and Eastern Bulgaria (Silistra 72%, Chirmen 88%, Nikopol 22%). Later on, in the 19th century, when the process of Islamization had halted in most of the Balkans and some Balkan Christian peoples like Greeks and Serbs had already claimed independence, Islamization continued to make significant progress in Albania, especially in the South. As a rule, Ottoman rule largely tolerated Christian subjects but it also discriminated against them, turning them into second-class citizens with much higher taxes and various legal restrictions like being unable to take Muslims to court, have horses, have weapons, or have houses overlooking those of Muslims. While Catholicism was chronically held in suspicion by Ottoman authorities, after the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottomans largely allowed the Orthodox church to function unhindered, except during periods when the church was considered politically suspect and thus suppressed with expulsions of bishops and seizure of property and revenues. Conversion during Ottoman times was variously due to calculated attempts to improve social and economic status, due to the successful proselytizing by missionaries, or done out of desperation in very difficult times; in the latter case, the converts often practised crypto-Christianity for long periods. During the Ottoman period, most Christians as well as most Muslims employed a degree of syncretism, still practising various pagan rites; many of these rites are best preserved among mystical orders like the Bektashi. Unlike some other areas of the Balkans, such as Bulgaria and Bosnia, for the first couple centuries of Ottoman rule, up until the 1500s, Islam remained confined to members of the co-opted aristocracy and a couple scattered military settlements of Yuruks from Anatolia, while the native Albanian peasantry remained overwhelmingly Christian. Even long after the fall of Skanderbeg, large regions of the Albanian countryside frequently rebelled against Ottoman rule, often incurring large human costs, including the decimation of whole villages. In the 1570s, a concerted effort by Ottoman rulers to convert the native population to Islam in order to stop the occurrence of seasonal rebellions began in Elbasan and Reka. In 1594, the Pope incited a failed rebellion among Catholic Albanians in the north, promising help from Spain. However the assistance did not come, and when the rebellion was crushed in 1596, Ottoman repression and heavy pressures to convert to Islam were implemented to punish the rebels. Post-Byzantine architectural style is prevalent in the region, e.g. in Vithkuq, Labove, Mesopotam, Dropull. Christianity and Islam in the north under Ottoman Rule , which was a center of learning , a town founded by Catholics to preserve their faith during a time of pressures in Tirana, built in the 18th century Ramadan Marmullaku noted that, in the 1600s, the Ottomans organized a concerted campaign of Islamization that was not typically applied elsewhere in the Balkans, in order to ensure the loyalty of the rebellious Albanian population. Although there were certain instances of violently forced conversion, usually this was achieved through debatably coercive economic incentives – in particular, the head tax on Christians was drastically increased. While the tax levied on Albanian Christians in the 1500s amounted to about 45 akçes, in the mid-1600s, it was 780 akçes. Conversion to Islam here was also aided by the dire state of the Catholic church in the period— in the entirety of Albania, there were only 130 Catholic priests, many of these poorly educated. During this period, many Christian Albanians fled into the mountains to found new villages like Theth, or to other countries where they contributed to the emergence of Arvanites, Arbëreshë, and Arbanasi communities in Greece, Italy, and Croatia. While in the first decade of the 17th century, Central and Northern Albania remained firmly Catholic (according to Vatican reports, Muslims were no more than 10% in Northern Albania), by the middle of the 17th century, 30–50% of Northern Albania had converted to Islam, while by 1634 most of Kosovo had also converted. During this time, the Venetian Republic helped to prevent the wholesale Islamisation of Albania, maintaining a hold on parts of the north near the coast. was the Pope from 1700 to 1721. He was born to the noble family of Albani of Italian and Albanian origin, and convened the Kuvendi i Arbënit to halt the wave of de-Catholicisation This period also saw the emergence of Albanian literature, written by Christians such as Pjetër Bogdani. Some of these Christian Albanian thinkers, like Bogdani himself, ultimately advocated for an Albania outside of Ottoman control, and at the end of the 17th century, Bogdani and his colleague Raspasani, raised an army of thousands of Kosovar Albanians in support of the Austrians in the Great Turkish War. However, when this effort failed to expel Ottoman rule from the area yet again, many of Kosovo's Catholics fled to Hungary. In 1700, the Papacy passed to Pope Clement XI, who was himself of Albanian-Italian origins and held great interest in the welfare of his Catholic Albanian kinsmen, known for composing the Illyricum sacrum. In 1703 he convened the Albanian Council (Kuvendi i Arbënit) in order to organize methods to prevent further apostasy in Albania, and preserve the existence of Catholicism in the land. The widespread survival of Catholicism in northern Albania is largely attributable to the activity of the Franciscan order in the area Like in the north, conversion was achieved through a diverse motley of violent, coercive and non-coercive means, but raised taxes were the main factor. Nevertheless, there were specific local cases: in Vlora and the surrounding region, the Christians converted en masse once the area was recaptured from the Christian forces in 1590, because they feared violent retribution for their collaboration. In Labëri, meanwhile, mass conversion took place during a famine in which the bishop of Himara and Delvina was said to have forbidden the people from breaking the fast and consuming milk under threat of interminable hell. Across Orthodox regions of Albania, conversion was also helped by the presence of heresies like Arianism and the fact that much of the Orthodox clergy was illiterate, corrupt, and conducted sermons in Greek, a foreign language, as well as the poverty of the Orthodox church. although in these regions scattered Orthodox holdouts remained (such as around Berat, in Zavalina, and the quite large region of Myzeqe including Fier and Lushnjë) as well as continuing Crypto-Christianity around the region of Shpati among others, where Crypto-Christians formally reverted to Orthodoxy in 1897. Religious tolerance in Albania was born of national expediency and a general lack of religious convictions. Monarchy , founded the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania Originally under the monarchy, institutions of all confessions were put under state control. In 1923, following the government program, the Albanian Muslim congress convened at Tirana decided to break with the Caliphate, established a new form of prayer (standing, instead of the traditional salah ritual), banished polygamy and did away with the mandatory use of veil (hijab) by women in public, which had been forced on the urban population by the Ottomans during the occupation. In 1929 the Albanian Orthodox Church was declared autocephalous. A year later, in 1930, the first official religious census was carried out. Reiterating conventional Ottoman data from a century earlier which previously covered double the new state's territory and population, 50% of the population was grouped as Sunni Muslim, 20% as Orthodox Christian, 20% as Bektashi Muslim and 10% as Catholic Christian. The monarchy was determined that religion should no longer be a foreign-oriented master dividing the Albanians, but a nationalized servant uniting them. It was at this time that newspaper editorials began to disparage the almost universal adoption of Muslim and Christian names, suggesting instead that children be given neutral Albanian names. Official slogans began to appear everywhere. "Religion separates, patriotism unites." "We are no longer Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, we are all Albanians." "Our religion is Albanism." The national hymn characterized neither Muhammad nor Jesus Christ, but King Zogu as "Shpëtimtari i Atdheut" (Savior of the Fatherland). The hymn to the flag honored the soldier dying for his country as a "Saint." Increasingly the mosque and the church were expected to function as servants of the state, the patriotic clergy of all faiths preaching the gospel of Albanism. Monarchy stipulated that the state should be neutral, with no official religion and that the free exercise of religion should be extended to all faiths. Neither in government nor in the school system should favor be shown to any one faith over another. Albanism was substituted for religion, and officials and schoolteachers were called "apostles" and "missionaries." Albania's sacred symbols were no longer the cross and the crescent, but the Flag and the King. Hymns idealizing the nation, Skanderbeg, war heroes, the king and the flag predominated in public-school music classes to the exclusion of virtually every other theme. The first reading lesson in elementary schools introduced a patriotic catechism beginning with this sentence, "I am an Albanian. My country is Albania." Then there follows in poetic form, "But man himself, what does he love in life?" "He loves his country." "Where does he live with hope? Where does he want to die?" "In his country." "Where may he be happy, and live with honor?" "In Albania." Italian occupation On 7 April 1939, Albania was invaded by Italy under Benito Mussolini, which had long taken an interest in gaining dominance over Albania as an Italian sphere of influence during the interwar period. The Italians attempted to win the sympathies of the Muslim Albanian population by proposing to build a large mosque in Rome, though the Vatican opposed this measure and nothing came of it in the end. The Italian occupiers also won Muslim Albanian sympathies by causing their working wages to rise. The Catholic Church and many Catholics were supportive of the invasion, but Fischer states there were many exceptions, particularly of among the village priests since most of them were trained in Albania and were quite nationalistic. Some of them even left Albania after the Italian invasion. But the hierarchy on the other hand was quite supportive, with the apostolic delegate seeing it as a possibility to give more freedom to Albanians who wanted to become Catholic. The Catholic Church had also the most financial support per member during the Italian occupation. The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1946 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses. Many clergy and believers were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were expelled in 1946. was a Macedonian–born ethnic Albanian who later became a world-renowned missionary. Religious communities or branches that had their headquarters outside the country, such as the Jesuit and Franciscan orders, were henceforth ordered to terminate their activities in Albania. Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with the education of the young, because that had been made the exclusive province of the state. All religious communities were prohibited from owning real estate and from operating philanthropic and welfare institutions and hospitals. Although there were tactical variations in First Secretary of the Communist Party Enver Hoxha's approach to each of the major denominations, his overarching objective was the eventual destruction of all organized religion in Albania. Between 1945 and 1953, the number of priests was reduced drastically and the number of Catholic churches was decreased from 253 to 100, and all Catholics were stigmatized as fascists. By May 1967, religious institutions had been forced to relinquish all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines in Albania, many of which were converted into cultural centres for young people. As the literary monthly Nendori reported the event, the youth had thus "created the first atheist nation in the world." Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, "The State recognises no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in the people", and the penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for "religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature." Parents were afraid to pass on their faith, for fear that their children would tell others. Officials tried to entrap practising Christians and Muslims during religious fasts, such as Lent and Ramadan, by distributing food at schools and workplaces during those fasting hours, and then publicly denouncing those who refused to eat during such times, and clergy who conducted secret services were incarcerated. The atheistic campaign had significant results especially to the Greek minority, since religion which was now criminalized was traditionally an integral part of its cultural life and identity. == Religions ==

Islam Islam was first introduced to Albania in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of the area. It is the largest religion in the country, nominally representing 50,67 % of the total population (Sunni Muslims, Bektashians and Non-denominational Muslims) according to the 2023 Census in Albania. One of the major legacies of nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule was that the majority of Albanians had converted to Islam. Therefore, the nation emerged as a Muslim-majority country after Albania's independence in November 1912. In the north, the spread of Islam was slower due to the resistance of the Catholic Church and the region's mountainous terrain. In the center and south, however, Catholicism was not as strong and by the end of the 17th century the region had largely adopted the religion of the growing Albanian Muslim elite. The existence of an Albanian Muslim class of pashas and beys who played an increasingly important role in Ottoman political and economic life became an attractive career option for most Albanians. Widespread illiteracy and the absence of educated clergy also played roles in the spread of Islam, especially in northern Albanian-inhabited regions. During the 17th and 18th centuries Albanians converted to Islam in large numbers, often under sociopolitical duress experienced as repercussions for rebelling and for supporting the Catholic powers of Venice and Austria and Orthodox Russia in their wars against the Ottomans. in Tirana In the 20th century, the power of Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox clergy was weakened during the years of monarchy and it was eradicated during the 1940s and 1950s, under the state policy of obliterating all organized religion from Albanian territories. During the Ottoman invasion the Muslims of Albania were divided into two main communities: those associated with Sunni Islam and those associated with Bektashi Shiism, a mystical Dervish order that came to Albania through the Albanian Janissaries that served in the Ottoman army and whose members practised Albanian pagan rites under a nominal Islamic cover. After the Bektashians were banned in Turkey in 1925 by Atatürk, the order moved its headquarters to Tirana and the Albanian government subsequently recognized it as a body independent from Sunnism. Sunni Muslims were estimated to represent approximately 50% of the country's population before 1939, while Bektashi represented another 20%. Muslim populations have been particularly strong in eastern and northern Albania and among Albanians living in Kosovo and Macedonia. Sunni Islam . Sunni Muslims have historically lived in the cities of Albania, while Bektashians mainly live in remote areas, whereas Catholics mainly live in the north, and Orthodox Christians mainly live in the south of the country. However, this division does not apply nowadays. In a study by Pew Research, 65% of Albanian Muslims did not specify a branch of Islam that they belonged to. There are large concentrations of Halvetis in Devoll, Tropoja, Luma (around Kukes) and in mountainous valleys in the Kurvelesh region. Halvetis also live near Bektashiansin Mallakastra, Tepelena, Gjirokastër, Delvina, Permet, Leskovik, Korçë, and the city of Berat. The first Albanian Halveti tekke however was in Ioannina, now Greece. After the fall of communism, in 1998, it was reported that there were 42 Bektashi tekkes in Albania. The Sa'dis originated in Damascus and in Albania have a close relationship with the Bektashians. Both were favored by Ali Pasha and they looked after and venerated each other's holy places and tombs. There was a Sa'di tekke in Gjakova in 1600, and two Sa'di tekkes in Tepelena two centuries later, as well as some historical presence in Tropoja, Gjirokastër, Elbasan and Peza. In 1980 in Kosovo, there are 10 operating Sa'di tekkes. The Kadris first originated as a distinct sect in Istanbul in the 17th century, then were spread to the Balkans as the "Zindjiris" by Ali Baba of Crete, originally spreading from within the Bektashi community. There are Kadri tekkes in Tirana, Berat and Peqin, but the main center of the Kadris is Peshkopia in Diber County. In 1945 they were finally recognized as a distinct religious community; since the fall of Communism, they have reconstituted themselves and now have an operating tekke in Peshkopia. Christianity Catholicism as according to the 2011 Census. In the 2023 census, about 8.38% of Albania's population were declared as Catholic Christianity. Vlora and Butrint also saw Catholicization, and at the peak of Catholic power in the Balkans with Albania as a stronghold, Catholic structures began appearing as far afield as Skopje in 1326. At the end of the 14th century, the previously Orthodox Autocephalous Archbishopric of Ohrid was dismantled in favor of the Catholic rite. in Tirana Those Albanian Orthodox, who, in the fashion of 19th century Balkan nationalism, sought to see their church as an Albanian rather than Greek body, were frequently excommunicated by the Greek-speaking hierarchy. Considering that identity during the Ottoman centuries was defined primarily by religious affiliations, such questions in the post-Ottoman period loomed large in the burgeoning national and cultural identities. After the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople lost in 1870 jurisdictional control over the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire, the Patriarchate did not desire further schisms within its ranks. Indeed, so strong was the rivalry of Greeks with Orthodox Albanians who opted for separate cultural activities, that some of the latter category such as Papa Kristo Negovani, a priest educated in Greek schools, Sotir Ollani, Petro Nini Luarasi, Nuci Naco and others were murdered for their patriotic efforts. Nationalist fervor ran high in Albanian immigrant communities in North America. When, in 1906, a Greek priest from an independent Greek parish in Hudson, Massachusetts, refused to bury an Albanian nationalist, an outraged Albanian community petitioned the missionary diocese to assist them in establishing a separate Albanian-language parish within the missionary diocese. Fan Noli, an ardent Albanian nationalist and former parish cantor, was subsequently ordained in February 1908 by a sympathetic Metropolitan Platon to serve this new Albanian parish. Noli went on to organize five additional Albanian parishes, mainly in Massachusetts, as an Albanian Orthodox Mission in America under the auspices of the American diocese. Noli later emigrated to Albania, served as the Albanian delegate to the League of Nations, was consecrated Bishop and Primate of the independent Orthodox Church in Albania in 1923, and even served briefly as Prime Minister of Albania (came in power with the so-called The Revolution of 1924) but was overthrown in a coup by Ahmet Zogu on the same year. After years in exile in Germany, Noli returned to the United States in 1932, studied at Harvard, translated Shakespeare into Albanian and Orthodox Scriptures and services into English, and led the Albanian Orthodox community in this country until his death in 1965. Protestantism In the early 19th century, in accordance with the Protestant practice of making the Scriptures available to all people in their common tongue, the British and Foreign Bible Society began to make plans for the translation, printing, and distribution of the New Testament in Albanian. Soon Alexander Thomson, a Scottish missionary, joined the Society and visited Albania in 1863. Kostandin Kristoforidhi also joined the Society to translate the Scriptures in both Geg and Tosk dialects. In the late 19th century the Society's workers traveled throughout Albania distributing Bibles, under the leadership of Gjerasim Qiriazi who converted, preached the Gospel in Korçë, and became the head of the first "Evangelical Brotherhood". Qiriazi sought official government recognition for the Albanian Evangelical Church in 1887, a pursuit which would not be fulfilled until 10 March 2011 by Law No. 10394. Judaism The history of the Jews in Albania dates back at least 2,000 years dating back to 70 CE. Albanian Jews, predominantly Sephardi, have only constituted a very small percentage of the population in modern times. In 1673 the charismatic Jewish prophet Sabbatai Zevi was exiled by the Turkish sultan to the Albanian port of Ulqin, now in Montenegro, dying there some years later. Over the course of World War II Albania saw its Jewish population increase. During the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania banned all religions, including Judaism, in adherence to the doctrine of state atheism. In the post-Communist era, these policies were abandoned and freedom of religion was extended, although the number of practising Jews in Albania today remains small, with many Jews having made aliyah to Israel. Today Jews number around 150. In December 2010 Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar installed Rabbi Yoel Kaplan as the country's first Chief Rabbi. Recognition of Judaism as an official religion and Rabbi Kaplan as Chief Rabbi were the result of Prime Minister Sali Berisha's efforts. Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith in Albania was introduced in the 1930s by Refo Çapari, an Albanian politician. Over the recent years several Baháʼí education centres have also been founded. == Irreligion ==

, the famous novelist, has declared himself an atheist Irreligion is and has been historically present among Albanians. In the 2023 Census, considerable share, 13.8 percent, stated that they are believers but do not belong to any particular religion or faith, while 3.6 % declared that they are ‘Atheists’, and 10.2% declared ‘Prefer not to answer’ to the question on religion. Nowadays, estimations of the size of the irreligious population vary widely. The self-declared atheist population has been given figures ranging from 3.6% to 8% to 9% while other estimates of irreligiosity have reported figures of 39% declaring as "atheists"(9%) or "nonreligious"(30%), Albanian national revivalists in the 19th century such as Faik Konica, Jani Vreto, and Zef Jubani were often anti-clerical in rhetoric (Konica said in 1897: "Every faith religion makes me puke", or ), but the first advocate of atheism in modern Albania is thought to have been Ismet Toto, a publicist and revolutionary whose 1934 anti-religious polemic, Grindje me klerin, was one of the first known works advocating against the practice of religion itself in the Albanian language. Under Socialist rule in 1967, leader Enver Hoxha persecuted and outlawed public religious practice and adopted state atheism. Some well-known Albanian contemporary atheists include Ismail Kadare, Dritëro Agolli, Ben Blushi, Fatos Lubonja, Mustafa Nano, Saimir Pirgu, Diana Çuli, Gilman Bakalli, Fatos Tarifa, , Ylli Rakipi, Elton Deda, and Moikom Zeqo. == Religious demography ==

According to the 2023 census, there were 1,101,718 (45.86%) Sunni Muslims (also non-denominational Muslims) 201,530 (8.38%) Catholics, 173,645 (7.22%) Eastern Orthodox, 115,644 (4.81%) Bektashi Muslims, 9,658 (0.4%) Evangelicals, 3 670 (0.15%) of other religions, 332,155 (13.82%) believers without a religion or denomination, 85,311 (3.55%) Atheists and 378,782 (15.76%) did not provide an answer. • ‡ Sunni Muslim (aggregate category): for the 2011 and 2023 censuses this category includes all respondents who declared themselves simply as “Muslim” in the census question on religion, in addition to those who identified with the Sunni Muslim community, and excludes only those who explicitly identified as Bektashi. Survey research by the Pew Research Center on religious affiliation in Albania reports that about 65% of Muslims in the country describe themselves as “just a Muslim” rather than as Sunni or Shia, even though the largest organised Muslim community in Albania is the Sunni Muslim community. • § Census dispute and underreporting: The official figures for the Orthodox Christian population (6.75% in 2011; 7.22% in 2023) are strongly contested by the Albanian Orthodox Autocephalous Church, which considers them fundamentally incorrect and unacceptable. The Church attributes the low percentage to alleged methodological problems, including the fact that the question on religion was optional and that many Orthodox believers were supposedly counted in the large "Not stated / other" category, and has at times suggested that a considerable share of respondents recorded as atheists or unaffiliated believers are in reality Orthodox Christians. However, making questions on religion and similar sensitive characteristics voluntary, or allowing respondents not to answer them, follows long-standing census recommendations of the United Nations and European statistical bodies rather than constituting a methodological irregularity. Independent demographic analyses also note that no empirical evidence (from surveys, administrative data or other sources) has been provided to substantiate the claim that most atheists or unaffiliated believers are misclassified Orthodox Christians, and argue that a substantial part of the decline from historical levels (e.g. 20.7% in 1942) reflects genuine demographic change, particularly historically high emigration and lower fertility among Orthodox Christians compared with other groups. A similar long-term decline is also visible among Bektashis (from 14.7% of the population in 1923 to about 2.1% in 2011 and 4.8% in 2023), which points to broader patterns of emigration, urbanisation and secularisation affecting historically concentrated religious communities. From 1923 to 2023 the Muslim share declines from 68.5% to 50.67%, with Sunni identification falling after 2011 and Bektashi rising from 2.09% in 2011 to 4.81% in 2023; Christians decrease from about 31% to 16% overall, with Catholics dropping from 10.0% in 2011 to 8.38% in 2023, Orthodox remaining close to their 2011 level at 6.75% to 7.22% and Evangelicals growing from 0.2% to 0.4%. Between 2011 and 2023 the resident population falls from 2,800,138 to 2,402,113 (−398,025); in absolute terms Muslims decline by 428,874 (Sunnis −485,890, Bektashi +57,016) and Christians by 90,696 (Catholics −79,391, Orthodox −15,347, Evangelicals +4,042), while Believers without religion/denomination increase by 178,525 (153,630 → 332,155) and atheists by 15,316 (69,995 → 85,311). The combined non-religious total (atheists plus believers without denomination or religion) increased from 223,625 (8.0%) in 2011 to 417,466 (17.37%) in 2023, during a period of overall population decline. In a census performed before World War II, a rough distribution of the population was 70% Muslim, 20% Eastern Orthodox, and 10% Catholic. 65% of Albanian Muslims did not associate with particular sect of Islam in a Pew survey. In 1967, religious practices were officially banned in Albania, making the country the first and only constitutionally atheist state to ever exist. After the fall of state communism, in 1991 religious activities resumed. Among people who follow any of the four major religions in Albania, there is a mixture of various religious traditions and pagan traditions coming from the time before Christianity. However, even among those who declared themselves to be adherents of a religion, the majority of the population in Albania has a more secular interpretation of religion than that which would be found in other countries. In August 2012, a Pew Research study found that only 15% of the Muslim population for example, considers religion to be a very important factor in their lives, which was the lowest percentage in the world amongst countries with significant Muslim populations. Another survey conducted by Gallup Global Reports 2010 shows that religion plays a role to 39% of Albanians, and lists Albania as the thirteenth least religious country in the world. According to research Albania is unique regarding the lower than expected practice of circumcision as, as 36.8% of males are circumcised. Even among Muslims, the rate is 46.5%, while among Bektashis it is lower at 21%. This contrasts with the near-universal practice of circumcision as Islamic custom among Muslims worldwide. Between 2018 and 2024, religious engagement among young people in Albania declined significantly according to the FES Youth Studies. In 2018, 31.3% of youth never attended religious services or did not belong to a religion, and by 2024, this figure had risen to 43.7%. Regular attendance (at least once a month) dropped from 18.3% to 11.0%, while occasional attendance (less than once a month) decreased from 50.3% to 45.3%. A 2022 poll commissioned by Euronews Albania showed that 50.7% in Albania never visit go to religious places of worship, 27.6% visit them only for religious festivities and 19.2% visit them at least once a month. Beliefs and rituals data According to a WIN/Gallup International study in 2016 about the beliefs of the Albanians: • 80% believed there's God • 40% believed in life after death • 57% believed that people have a soul • 40% believed in hell • 42% believed in heaven In the World Values Survey wave 6 (2017-2022) Albania had the lowest belief in life after death in Europe at 22.7%. A 2024 survey by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation asked about ritual practice in Albania giving the below results: According to the 2024 survey by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) In the district of Shkodër they reached 5% in 1980. The December 2024 KAS survey found that 79% of respondents had no problem with a family member (including themselves) marrying or cohabiting with someone from a family of a different religious background; such marriages and partnerships represented 21.5% of all unions in their survey. A 2024 national survey by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation reported that 59.9% would certainly support a family member marrying someone of another religion, 19.6% would accept it but not encourage it, 5.1% would object if the spouse is a practicing believer, and 4.5% would object in any case (7.4% were unsure; 3.5% refused to answer). Places of worship According to 2008 statistics from the religious communities in Albania, there are 1,119 churches and 638 mosques in the country. The Catholic mission declared 694 Catholic churches. The Christian Orthodox community, 425 Orthodox churches. The Muslim community, 568 mosques, and 70 Bektashi tekkes. == Freedom of religion ==

in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack The Constitution extends freedom of religion to all citizens and the government generally respects this right in practice. Government policy and practice contributed to the generally free exercise of religion. The government is secular and the Ministry of Education asserts that public schools in the country are secular and that the law prohibits ideological and religious indoctrination. Religious history and comparative religion may be taught in the context of humanities instruction in public schools, while private schools are allowed to teach religious instruction. == See also ==