www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News In Kosovo, Orthodox Churches burning

Dear Mexican,

Your question and observations are excellent!

The Albanian Roman Catholics have always been the most isolated of the Albanians of the three religious groups in Albania, Kosova, and Macedonia. They refuse to mix with the Muslims in any significant way. Villages in the North are not mixed (Christian & Muslim) as they often were in the South, so labor & trading relations were of a limited nature. They may not marry with them and there are no other Roman Catholics with whom to marry, so they are genetically and culturally "most pure," if you will pardon the misuse of that term. Of this, they are most proud. If anyone has maintained the warlike, mountainous, clan-affiliated, anti-Muslim mindset of the Illyrians from early Christian times to the present, they have.

Still today, in NYC, where 100-200,000 Catholic and Muslim Albanians from Kosova and Montenegro live, there is an occasional killing, usually across the religious boundary.

I'm afraid that the division is still rather deep. These tribes in the North maintain blood feuds for decades and even centuries. Yes, the Muslims cooperated with and worked for the Turks and that is why they became Muslim, but there is a time to forgive and move on, sharing with them the joy that we have in Christ and the glory of His resurrection.

The Orthodox also don't marry with the Muslims since we fall out of communion by doing so, but there has been more dialogue and, in some cases, a symbiotic relationship throughout the Turkokratia. In some cases, one family member was selected to convert to Islam (usually Bektashism) in order to protect the clan's people and property. The Bektashi even openly venerate the Theotokos, St. Spiridon and other saints, thus being persecuted as heretics by the Sultan's Sunni majority. This began the phenomenon of Crypto-Christianism whereby one was Orthodox at home, but Muslim on the street and before the Bey, Pasha, or Hoxha. Scripturally, and canonically, a big "no-no," but....

Many Muslims converted first and then married with the Orthodox. That is certainly the pattern now. No Christian becomes Muslim, but the reverse is usually accepted gleefully by family members, almost as if the converting member had finally arrived in "high society." The greatest patriotic heros of modern Albanian History have been mostly Orthodox: George Kastrioti, Theophan Noli, Themistokli Germenj....

But the Orthodox more often intermarried with Greeks, Slavs, and Romanians/Vlachs. So they are used to more intercultural mixes. Plus they travelled and emmigrated, bringing ideas of tolerance home with them. The world of the Orthodox Albanian has been broad; from Durres to Constantinople, with colonies in Southern Italy, Bucharest, Sofia, Zadar, and the whole of Greece and the Islands. There they find fellow native-speakers (Arvaniti & Arberesh) and members of the same Church and Patriarchates.

So this ease which which Albanian Muslims in Albania proper could become Orthodox is significantly dampened by the situation in Kosova wherein the oppressor was Orthodox. But it will change with time, God willing.

In Christ,
Andrew

Alex,

You jaded secularist!

A glorious Holy Week and Pascha to you and your family as well!

In Christ,
Andrew

It should be noted that the Albanian population of Kosovo and Macedonia (where similar attacks on Orthodox Churches are occuring) along with the Albanian Mafia, now quite active in Western Europe, are almost entirely Moslem.

Dear Lawrence,

While what you post is very true, I fear that it is more a product of the patterns of immigration than the underlying trend that we would like to believe, 'that an Orthodox Christian or Roman Catholic would never engage in such activities.'

While the burning of Churches is certainly something that only Muslims are found doing, the trade in prostitutes, weapons, and arms is "an equal opportunity employer."

When I say "patterns of immigration," I'm referring to the fact that Albanians from Yugoslavia (primarily Kosova and Montenegro) are primarily Muslim (90% in Kosova but less so in Montenegro). They had early exit to Western Europe (1960s), especially Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Germany which had already had a generally positive experience with Turkish Muslims. (They found out, the hard way, that Turkish Muslim guest worker families and single Albanian Muslim males are not the same.)

The Roman Catholics amongst the Albanians from Yugoslavia had excellent opportunities to settle in North America, especially in NYC and Detroit. The Muslims also came, but not in per centages reflecting their per centage in Yugoslavia. The Roman Catholics had powerful supporters in Church, government, and Congress including Arberesh (Italo-Albanians) such as former U.S. Rep. DioGuardi and others.

Internally, Albania had mobsters in the wealthier cities since the 1930s. In Korca, where my people are from, two of the gangs were Orthodox: a neighborhood gang of Albanian Orthodox and a larger, city-wide gang of Romano-Vllach Orthodox. The Gypsies have loose gangs and the Muslims also have a gang.

The Communists allowed them to exist more as friendship groups than as power groups.

When the Republic of Albania opened emmigration in 1991 Orthodox Albanians tended to go to Greece, where they received preferential treatment. Roman Catholic Albanians went to Italy, where there was already a mafia in place trading in prostitutes, weapons, and drugs. Muslims went to both places, but have it especially difficult in Greece, unless they changed their names and accepted baptism.

Initially, Albanians cheered when the doors opened in 1991, since these mobster types were the first to flee, seeking easy riches abroad, but also robbing, raping, and doing all manner of evil in the process. They badly tarnished the image for the hardworking family types who followed them simply looking for a lowly job with which they might support themselves.

But these guys were expelled from Greece and Italy and returned home to continue their occupation domestically.

For example, in 1997 during the civil chaos in Albania, one of THE ORTHODOX MOBS was trying to break into the Museum in Korca where more than 12,000 icons are stored (wisely taken from the Churches by faithful curators who tagged them as "historical state property" in order to save them from local Party thugs who would have burned them in each place where they found them during the start of enforced atheism in 1967). Fortunately, the wiley priest was right behind them and said, (paraphrase) 'I'm so glad that you're here! We heard that the MUSLIMS want to come and steal these icons, so the Church would like to pay you good Orthodox boys to protect them!'

What can you do?

It is only in recent years that the Albanian mobsters, in an organized way and primarily out of Vlora, have edged into the foreign territory previously dominated by La Cosa Nostra in Sicily, N'Dranghetta in Calabria, and La Camorra in Campagna & Puglia. I don't know about Greece, except that they funnel Kurds and other Asians through there, using Fieri and the areas outside of Vlora as staging points prior to the speedboat runs to the coast of Southern Italy.

Supposedly, things are getting better, but just a few months ago the operators of a speedboat operation were caught. The father of one was a Chief of Police and the other's father was high up in the border patrol service.

So Albanian mobsters of RC and OC heritage tend not to operate in Western Europe as much as in Southern Europe.


In Christ,
Andrew