Secularism in Albania
[4] According to some historical sources, the government of the Roman and Byzantine empire had to recognize autonomous customary laws to the various local communities for their self-administration.
After annexing Suli and Himara into his semi-independent state in 1798, he tried to organize the judiciary in every city and province according to the principle of social equality, enforcing his laws for the entire population of his domains, Muslims and Christians.
Sami Frashëri in his 1899 work, "Shqipëria ç'ka qenë, ç'është dhe ç'do të bëhet", envisioned an Albania that would have no official religion and where education would be secular.
A 1929 decree on the administration of religious communities put them under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, and banned the clergy from pursuing political goals.
He also took it upon himself to remind the communities of their national-patriotic tasks: ‘Do not forget that while fulfilling the holy duty… the fatherland must be above everything.’ Intellectuals in general gave their backing to the state's top-down modernist approach, and argued that Muslims had no other choice but to reform according to ‘principles of present European life’.
Religion and religious beliefs can not be used in any way for the realization of political purposes.In a 1929 congress, the Muslim community, under pressure from the government, adopted the template of Albanianism, including its twist towards European modernity and civilizational progress.
The Muslim community's reshuffled statutes required its head ‘to be faithful to the King, to the fatherland and to respect the Constitution with national consciousness”.
The 1929 Civil Code abolished also remaining competences of the Islamic courts by stripping the Muslim hierarchy of any forms of political and legal authority.
[21] The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1946 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses.
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.
Despite complaints, even by Party of Labour of Albania members, all churches, mosques, tekkes, monasteries, and other religious institutions were either closed down or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, or workshops by the end of 1967.
[23] 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.
"[22] 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.
[18][24] After the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985, his successor, Ramiz Alia, adopted a relatively tolerant stance toward religious practice, referring to it as "a personal and family matter."
In December 1990, the ban on public religious observance was officially lifted, in time to allow thousands of Christians to attend Christmas services.
[33] In 2016 the government of Edi Rama proposed to have lessons about "History of Religion" which according to the Education Minister, Lindita Nikolla "would not entail religious proselytizing".
