Religion in Pristina
The small minority of Pristina's religious population that is not Muslim practice Christianity in the form of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
When Pristina was in the Serbian Empire in the Middle Ages, Eastern Orthodoxy was the predominant faith other than Roman Catholicism.
[1] Religious communities have educational institutions for their needs, organized in accordance with applicable law.
Also, it includes the right to manifest religion or belief (in worship, teaching, practice and observance), either alone or in community with others, in public or privately.
Taking into consideration the fact that Slobodan Milošević practiced brutality towards the Kosovar nationality during the last war, that brutality affected the population emotionally causing harassment and persecution by the Kosovar population against the Serb community and their monasteries in Pristina.
The Serbian Orthodox Church was the church that supported Milosevic's regime but it was the career of Slobodan Milošević which made Patriarch Pavle to go public in the 1990s, criticizing Milošević even though other members which were part of the hierarchy continued to give their support towards him.
This act of Serbians made influence in the citizens behaviors by destroying the Orthodox Churches all around the place.
The reason of destroying each other's monuments was mostly because of the desire to eradicate the evidence of the others presence in Kosovo than by religious fanaticism.
[5] According to the Kosovo Statistics Agency, here is a chart showing the number of people within each religious community:
Graduates of this school, how havedoctorate degrees, and masters, and are different scientific workers, theologians, doctors, engineers, etc., scattered throughout all corners of the world.
Madras's home in Pristina, is a modern school, equipped with computer rooms, language labs, a sports hall and a library, in which have stored old manuscripts from the centuries before of our Islamic and national past.
Madras maintains cooperation with educational institutions such as the: University of Pristina, the Faculty of Agriculture, the Association of Kosovo Charter, and the Council of Solidarity at LDK etc.
[11] One well known Muslim geographer, historian and cartographer Al Idrisi (1154) provided information about traveling to Constantinople from Albanian lands and vice versa.
Despite claims that might rise about radicalism or radicals movements in Kosovo, however, the presence of many international, mainly European, organizations hold that Kosovo Muslims do not define their national identity through religion, but through language and have a relatively relaxed approach towards the observance of the forms of Islam.
Its cupola was once the largest in the region, while today it is the only mosque built by Sultan Mehmet II that still survives in these areas.
This mosque has suffered from deterioration and unprofessional in its restoration; poor infrastructure in surroundings creates and destroys moisture in walls stones.
Its founder, man Piri called Nazir, served as vizier during two Ottoman Sultans rule.
According to some local legend 'Stone of Lazarus', which is found in the garden of the mosque, is the cornerstone on which Lazar was beheaded in 1389.
Before his body moved to Ravaniqit Monastery, Prince Lazar was buried in the Mosque Pirinaz with the permission of Sultan Bayazid.
Sometimes Kosovo Muslims, living in the west, do fundraising among their compatriots and bring the money back to the country.
Islamic Community of Kosovo usually organizes manages these fundraising, recently ICK has announced a project about building the Great Mosque in Pristina after getting the permission by relevant authorities.
The “ethnic cleansing” that the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, enforced towards the population not just of Pristina but the whole of Kosovo, killed thousands and hundreds had to flee.
Between March and June 1999, NATO intervened with a 78-day campaign focused at bombing and of which was done to tackle Serb forces and so Kosovo remains under UN control.
[25]“Special Protection Areas” (SPZ) are made around monuments, buildings and historical sites to protect historical, cultural, architectural or archaeological, natural environment or its aesthetic because these buildings or monuments hold a lot of importance to the Serbian community in Pristina.
In case of dispute between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the central or local authorities of Kosovo, KIM can mediate between the two parties.
There are also a small number of evangelical Protestants, whose tradition dates back to the Methodist missionaries' work centered in Bitola in the late 19th century.
Due to have been completed in 1999, its construction, on the campus of the pre-war University of Pristina, was interrupted by the Kosovo War.
Himself a Muslim, the former president of Kosovo Ibrahim Rugova ceremonially laid the church's foundation.
However, at the national level, KPEC bodies are: Assembly (Synod), Council of Ministers (Presbytery) and the chairman.
