Critics round on prime minister over ‘Muslim Vatican’ plan

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wants to establish a sovereign Muslim mini-state within his country based on the model of the Vatican.

It would be created in Albania’s capital Tirana and run by the Muslim Bektashi order.

However, it will take a long time before the plan can be implemented because of the necessary legal changes, Rama wrote on X on Wednesday.

Rama had briefly presented his idea for the first time on Sunday at the United Nations Future Summit in New York, completely surprising most of his fellow Albanians.

The leader of the Bektashi order in Tirana, Edmond Brahimaj, expressed his enthusiasm for the idea, saying the “excellent initiative” will “usher in a new era of religious tolerance and the promotion of peace.”

The Bektashi “Vatican” would be built in Tirana on an area of around 10 hectares at the World Centre of the Bektashi, which is currently located there.

It would have its borders, administration, and passports.

The Sunni Dervish order, which originated in the 13th century, was widespread in the Ottoman Empire and moved its centre to Albania after it was banned by the founder of the modern Turkish state, Kemal Atatürk, in 1925.

Currently, around half of Albanians are Muslim, with 10 per cent of them belonging to the Bektashi order.

The remainder identified as Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian in the last census in 2023.

During the communist era, the practice of religion was banned in Albania in any form.

Brahimaj was an officer in the Albanian army from 1982 until the fall of the regime.