Irreligion in Albania

Faik Bey Konitza, Albanian national revivalist, who, two years after his conversion from Islam to Catholicism, wrote invective against all religions

Enver Hoxha took Pashko Vasa's words literally, banning public religion though some private practice continued

In the late Ottoman era, in order to overcome the religious divisions among Albanians between members of the local Sunni Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Bektashi Muslim and Roman Catholic Christian communities. Albanian nationalism, as it emerged, tended to urge Albanians to disregard religious differences, arguing that divisive sectarian religious fanaticism was alien to Albanian culture, and propagated what some historians refer to as a "'civic religion' of Albanianism".[19] Vaso Pasha's famous poem O moj Shqypni told Albanians to "swear an oath not to mind [lit. "look to"] church or mosque" because "the faith of the Albanian is Albanianism" (Albanian: feja e shqiptarit është shqiptaria or in Gheg Albanian: Feja e shqyptarit asht shqyptarija).[19]

Albanian national revivalists in the 19th century such as Faik Konitza, Jani Vreto and Zef Jubani were often anti-clerical in rhetoric (Konitza said in 1897: "Every faith religion makes me puke", or Albanian: Më vjen për të vjellur nga çdo fe)[20] but the first advocate of atheism in modern Albania is thought to have been Ismet Toto, a publicist and revolutionary[3] whose 1934 anti-religious polemic, Grindje me Klerin ("Quarrel with the clergy "), was one of the first known works advocating against the practice of religion itself in the Albanian language. This was followed by Sëmundja Fetare ("The Disease of Religion"), another important anti-religious polemic by Anastas Plasari in 1935.[4] The poem Blasfemi by Migjeni, who was considered to be an atheist by many, is also noted as being anti-religious.[21][22] Another important figure before that time was the politician and mayor of Gjirokastër, Hysen Hoxha, the uncle of Enver Hoxha, who was considered to be a "Radical Atheist and anti-colonialist". His atheistic views influenced those of Enver Hoxha.[23]

It noted his reign, Ahmet Zogu embraced the renaissance ideals of unity, areligiosity and European modernity, and turned them into the very ideology of the state.[24]

Lasgush Poradeci wrote the atheistic poem "Eskursioni teologjik i Sokratit"

"Nuk ka Zeus, as nuk ka zot,

Ferr, Lugat t'imagjinuar,

po ka popull të paditur,

popull q'ende s'është zgjuar."

_{English translation:}

"There is no Zeus, there is no Lord

Hell, (these) imagined Creatures,

But instead, there's ignorant people

People who haven't awoken yet."

And still are not yet awakened"[25][26]

— Lasgush Poradeci, Eskursioni teologjik i Sokratit

During the communist era, Albania transitioned from a simple secular state to, in 1967, an entity upholding state atheism by which all public practice of religion was banned, although some private practice survived.[8] The beginning of anti-religious policies implemented by the Communist Party of Albania was in August 1946, with the Agrarian Reform Law which nationalized most of the property of religious institutions, restricted the activity of religious institutions, and preceded the persecution of many clergy and believers and the expulsion of all foreign Catholic priests.[5]

In 1967 Enver Hoxha took Pashko Vasa's poem literally, turning the struggle against the divisiveness of religious affiliations into a struggle against religion itself in order to replace the divisive allegiances of the different religious communities with a unifying loyalty to the Communist state,[27] and he declared Albania an Atheist State, in which public religious practice was prohibited.[28][6][29][30] By May 1967, all 2,169 religious buildings in Albania were nationalized, with many converted into cultural centers.[5] A major center for anti-religious propaganda was the National Museum of Atheism (Albanian: Muzeu Ateist) in Shkodër, the city viewed by the government as the most religiously conservative.[8][31] After the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985, his successor, Ramiz Alia, adopted a more tolerant stance toward religious practice, calling it as "a personal and family matter." Émigré clergymen were permitted to reenter the country in 1988 and officiate at religious services. Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, visited Tirana in 1989, where she was received by the foreign minister and by Hoxha's widow. In December 1990, the ban on religious observance was officially lifted, in time to allow thousands of Christians to attend Christmas services,[7] although other sources report that official termination of the ban was in 1991.[32][33]

In 2014, following a visit by Pope Francis to Albania, some intellectuals criticized what they perceived as negative rhetoric aimed at atheists, which increasingly linked atheism to "communist crimes" and spoke of atheism as "deficient", leading to complaints that the revival of an anti-atheist "taboo",[18] among other issues.[34]

Ben Blushi, self-identified atheist politician

In Albania, religious identity is typically defined by attribution, typically via one's familial religious background, rather than actual adherence,[15][16] and regardless of an individual's religiosity or lack thereof, it can still be socially significant, as it is occasionally linked to historical socioeconomic and cultural factors in some contexts.[56]

Ismail Kadare, the famous novelist, has declared himself an atheist[57][58]

Some well-known Albanian contemporary atheists include Ismail Kadare, Dritëro Agolli,[59] Ben Blushi,[60] Andi Bushati,[61] Fatos Lubonja,[62] Mustafa Nano,[63] Saimir Pirgu,[64] Diana Çuli,[65] Elton Deda,[66] Fatos Tarifa,[67] Edmond Tupja,[68] Ylli Rakipi,[69] Gilman Bakalli,[70]Blendi Fevziu,[71] Moikom Zeqo[72] and Rrahman Parllaku.[73]

Some antipathy toward overt atheists has been detected in surveys—in one edition of the World Values Survey, 19.7% of Catholics, 17% of Muslims, and 9.4% of Orthodox "strongly agreed" that "those who don't believe in God" are unfit for office (total agreeing: 47.3% of Catholics, 46.9% of Muslims and 37% of Orthodox).[17] According to a 2011 study by Ipsos, 53.5% of the Albanians found atheists "similar" to them while 34.1% found them "different".[74]

Some Albanian intellectuals have complained about the revival of a "taboo" against atheism as seen in the rhetoric surrounding the 2014 visit of the Pope to the country where atheism was linked to "communist crimes" and seen as "deficient", and that the new Albanian constitution claims trust in God as a "universal" value despite the significant number of people who don't believe in God in the country.[18] There have also been complaints about discourse both in Albania and by foreigners which cites statistics of the traditional population shares of the different Muslim and Christian sects present, which would show the country to be a 100% religious country, thus erasing the presence of the irreligious.[34]

Prime Minister Edi Rama (himself of Catholic and Orthodox extraction with a Muslim wife[75] and having expressed doubt about the existence of God[76]) has asserted that Albania's traditional religious harmony, traditionally defined as being between the four main faiths of Sunni Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Bektashi Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity, should also include the irreligious. However, in a 2018 public speech he has used the word pafe (infidel) as a slur against his political opponents.[77]

• Religion in Albania
• Secularism in Albania