title: Religion in Albania

text: In the late 17th and 18th centuries, especially after numerous rebellions including during the Great Turkish War and subsequent clashes with Orthodox Russia, Ottoman rulers also made concerted efforts to convert the Orthodox Albanians of Southern and Central Albania (as well as neighboring regions of Greece and Macedonia). Like in the North, conversion was achieved through a diverse motley of violent, coercive and non-coercive means, but raised taxes were the main factor. Nevertheless, there were specific local cases: in Vlora and the surrounding region, the Christians converted en masse once the area was recaptured from the Christian forces in 1590, because they feared violent retribution for their collaboration. In Labëri, meanwhile, mass conversion took place during a famine in which the bishop of Himara and Delvina was said to have forbidden the people from breaking the fast and consuming milk under threat of interminable hell. Across Orthodox regions of Albania, conversion was also helped by the presence of heresies like Arianism and the fact that much of the Orthodox clergy was illiterate, corrupt, and conducted sermons in Greek, a foreign language, as well as the poverty of the Orthodox church. The clergy, largely from the Bosphorus, was distant from its Albanian flocks and also corrupt as well, abusing church tax collection and exacting a heavy tax regime that aggregated on top of punitive taxes imposed directly by the Ottoman state on the rebellious Albanian Christian population aimed at sparking their conversion.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Orthodox areas further north, such as those around Elbasan, were first to convert, during the 1700s, passing through a stage of Crypto-Christianity although in these regions scattered Orthodox holdouts remained (such as around Berat, in Zavalina, and the quite large region of Myzeqe including Fier and Lushnjë) as well as continuing Crypto-Christianity around the region of Shpati among others, where Crypto-Christians formally reverted to Orthodoxy in 1897. Further south, progress was slower. The region of Gjirokastra did not become majority Muslim until around 1875, and even then most Muslims were concentrated in the city of Gjirokastra itself. The same trajectory was true of Albanians in Chamëria, with the majority of Cham Albanians remaining Orthodox until around 1875— at which point Ottoman rule in the Balkans was already collapsing and many Christian Balkan states had already claimed independence (Greece, Serbia, Romania).


title: Religion in Albania

text: At the end of the Ottoman period, Sunni Islam held a slight majority (or plurality) in the Albanian territories. Catholicism still prevailed in the Northwestern regions surrounding Lezha and Shkodra, as well as a few pockets in Kosovo in and around Gjakova, Peja, Vitina, Prizren and Klina. Orthodoxy remained prevalent in various pockets of Southern and Central Albania (Myzeqeja, Zavalina, Shpati as well as large parts of what are now the counties of Vlora, Gjirokastra and Korca). The syncretic Bektashi sect, meanwhile, gained adherence across large parts of the South, especially Skrapari and Dishnica where it is the overwhelming majority. This four-way division of Albanians between Sunnis (who became either a plurality or a majority), Orthodox, Bektashis and Catholics, with the later emergence of Albanian Uniates, Protestants and atheists, prevented Albanian nationalism as it emerged from tying itself to any particular faith, instead promoting harmony between the different confessions and using the shared Albanian language, Albanian history and Albanian ethnic customs as unifying themes. Despite this, Bektashi tekkes in the South and Catholic churches in the North were both used by the nationalist movement as places of dissemination of nationalist ideals.


title: Religion in Albania

text: During the 20th century after Independence (1912) the democratic, monarchic and later the totalitarian regimes followed a systematic dereligionization of the nation and the national culture. Albania never had an official state religion either as a republic or as a kingdom after its restoration in 1912. Religious tolerance in Albania was born of national expediency and a general lack of religious convictions.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Originally under the monarchy, institutions of all confessions were put under state control. In 1923, following the government program, the Albanian Muslim congress convened at Tirana decided to break with the Caliphate, established a new form of prayer (standing, instead of the traditional salah ritual), banished polygamy and did away with the mandatory use of veil (hijab) by women in public, which had been forced on the urban population by the Ottomans during the occupation.


title: Religion in Albania

text: A year later, in 1930, the first official religious census was carried out. Reiterating conventional Ottoman data from a century earlier which previously covered double the new state's territory and population, 50% of the population was grouped as Sunni Muslim, 20% as Orthodox Christian, 20% as Bektashi Muslim and 10% as Catholic Christian.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The monarchy was determined that religion should no longer be a foreign-oriented master dividing the Albanians, but a nationalized servant uniting them. It was at this time that newspaper editorials began to disparage the almost universal adoption of Muslim and Christian names, suggesting instead that children be given neutral Albanian names.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Official slogans began to appear everywhere. "Religion separates, patriotism unites." "We are no longer Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, we are all Albanians." "Our religion is Albanism." The national hymn characterized neither Muhammad nor Jesus Christ, but King Zogu as "Shpëtimtari i Atdheut" (Savior of the Fatherland). The hymn to the flag honored the soldier dying for his country as a "Saint." Increasingly the mosque and the church were expected to function as servants of the state, the patriotic clergy of all faiths preaching the gospel of Albanism.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Monarchy stipulated that the state should be neutral, with no official religion and that the free exercise of religion should be extended to all faiths. Neither in government nor in the school system should favor be shown to any one faith over another. Albanism was substituted for religion, and officials and schoolteachers were called "apostles" and "missionaries." Albania's sacred symbols were no longer the cross and the crescent, but the Flag and the King. Hymns idealizing the nation, Skanderbeg, war heroes, the king and the flag predominated in public-school music classes to the exclusion of virtually every other theme.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The first reading lesson in elementary schools introduced a patriotic catechism beginning with this sentence, "I am an Albanian. My country is Albania." Then there follows in poetic form, "But man himself, what does he love in life?" "He loves his country." "Where does he live with hope? Where does he want to die?" "In his country." "Where may he be happy, and live with honor?" "In Albania."


title: Religion in Albania

text: On 7 April 1939, Albania was invaded by Italy under Benito Mussolini, which had long taken an interest in gaining dominance over Albania as an Italian sphere of influence during the interwar period. The Italians attempted to win the sympathies of the Muslim Albanian population by proposing to build a large mosque in Rome, though the Vatican opposed this measure and nothing came of it in the end. The Italian occupiers also won Muslim Albanian sympathies by causing their working wages to rise. Mussolini's son-in-law Count Ciano also replaced the leadership of the Sunni Muslim community, which had recognized the Italian regime in Albania, with clergy that aligned with Italian interests, with a compliant "Moslem Committee" organization, and Fischer notes that "the Moslem community at large accepted this change with little complaint". Most of the Bektashi order and its leadership were against the Italian occupation and remained an opposition group. Fischer suspects that the Italians eventually tired of the opposition of the Bektashi Order, and had its head, Nijaz Deda, murdered.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Albanian Orthodox hierarchy also acquiesced in the occupation, according to Fischer. The primate of the church, Archbishop Kisi, along with three other bishops, expressed formal approval of the Italian invasion in 1939. Metropolitan Visarion Xhuvani was part of the delegation which carried the Albanian throne to Victor Emanuel III in Rome.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Catholic Church and many Catholics were supportive of the invasion, but Fischer states there were many exceptions, particularly of among the village priests since most of them were trained in Albania and were quite nationalistic. Some of them even left Albania after the Italian invasion. But the hierarchy on the other hand was quite supportive, with the apostolic delegate seeing it as a possibility to give more freedom to Albanians who wanted to become Catholic. The Catholic Church had also the most financial support per member during the Italian occupation.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Before the Communists took power in 1944, it was estimated that of Albania's population of roughly 1,180,500 persons, about 70% belonged to Islamic sects while 30% belonged to Christian sects. Among the Muslims, at least 200,000 (or 17%) were Bektashis, while most of the rest were Sunnis, in addition to a collection of much smaller orders. Among the Christians, 212,500 (18%) were Orthodox while 142,000 (12%) were Catholic.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1946 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses. Many clergy and believers were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Roman Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were expelled in 1946.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Religious communities or branches that had their headquarters outside the country, such as the Jesuit and Franciscan orders, were henceforth ordered to terminate their activities in Albania. Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with the education of the young, because that had been made the exclusive province of the state. All religious communities were prohibited from owning real estate and from operating philanthropic and welfare institutions and hospitals.


title: Religion in Albania

text: 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. Between 1945 and 1953, the number of priests was reduced drastically and the number of Roman Catholic churches was decreased from 253 to 100, and all Catholics were stigmatized as fascists.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The campaign against religion peaked in the 1960s. Beginning in 1967 the Albanian authorities began a violent campaign to try to eliminate religious life 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. 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. As the literary monthly Nendori reported the event, the youth had thus "created the first atheist nation in the world."


title: Religion in Albania

text: The clergy were publicly vilified and humiliated, their vestments taken and desecrated. More than 200 clerics of various faiths were imprisoned, others were forced to seek work in either industry or agriculture, and some were executed or starved to death. The monastery of the Franciscan order in Shkodër was set on fire, which resulted in the death of four elderly monks.


title: Religion in Albania

text: A major center for anti-religious propaganda was the National Museum of Atheism () in Shkodër, the city viewed by the government as the most religiously conservative.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, "The State recognises no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in the people", and the penal code of 1977 imposed prison sentences of three to ten years for "religious propaganda and the production, distribution, or storage of religious literature." A new decree that in effect targeted Albanians with Islamic and religiously-tinged Christian names stipulated that citizens whose names did not conform to "the political, ideological, or moral standards of the state" were to change them. It was also decreed that towns and villages with religious names must be renamed. Hoxha's brutal antireligious campaign succeeded in eradicating formal worship, but some Albanians continued to practise their faith clandestinely, risking severe punishment. Individuals caught with Bibles, icons, or other religious objects faced long prison sentences. Religious weddings were prohibited. Parents were afraid to pass on their faith, for fear that their children would tell others. Officials tried to entrap practising Christians and Muslims during religious fasts, such as Lent and Ramadan, by distributing food at schools and workplaces during those fasting hours, and then publicly denouncing those who refused to eat during such times, and clergy who conducted secret services were incarcerated.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The article was interpreted as violating The United Nations Charter (chapter 9, article 55) which declares that religious freedom is an inalienable human right. The first time that the question of religious oppression in Albania came before the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights at Geneva was as late as 7 March 1983. A delegation from Denmark got its protest over Albania's violation of religious liberty placed on the agenda of the thirty-ninth meeting of the commission, item 25, reading, "Implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief." There was little consequence at first, but on 20 July 1984 a member of the Danish Parliament inserted an article in one of Denmark's major newspapers protesting the violation of religious freedom in Albania.


title: Religion in Albania

text: 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." Émigré clergymen were permitted to reenter the country in 1988 and officiate at religious services. Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, visited the country in 1989, where she was received in Tirana by the foreign minister and by Hoxha's widow and where she laid a wreath on Hoxha's grave. In December 1990, the ban on religious observance was officially lifted, in time to allow thousands of Christians to attend Christmas services.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The atheistic campaign had significant results especially to the Greek minority, since religion which was now criminalized was traditionally an integral part of its cultural life and identity.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Islam was first introduced to Albania in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest of the area. It is the largest religion in the country, representing 56% of the population according to the 2011 census. One of the major legacies of nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule was that the majority of Albanians had converted to Islam. Therefore, the nation emerged as a Muslim-majority country after Albania's independence in November 1912.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the North, the spread of Islam was slower due to the resistance of the Roman Catholic Church and the region's mountainous terrain. In the center and south, however, Catholicism was not as strong and by the end of the 17th century the region had largely adopted the religion of the growing Albanian Muslim elite. The existence of an Albanian Muslim class of pashas and beys who played an increasingly important role in Ottoman political and economic life became an attractive career option for most Albanians. Widespread illiteracy and the absence of educated clergy also played roles in the spread of Islam, especially in northern Albanian-inhabited regions. During the 17th and 18th centuries Albanians converted to Islam in large numbers, often under sociopolitical duress experienced as repercussions for rebelling and for supporting the Catholic powers of Venice and Austria and Orthodox Russia in their wars against the Ottomans.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the 20th century, the power of Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox clergy was weakened during the years of monarchy and it was eradicated during the 1940s and 1950s, under the state policy of obliterating all organized religion from Albanian territories.


title: Religion in Albania

text: During the Ottoman invasion the Muslims of Albania were divided into two main communities: those associated with Sunni Islam and those associated with Bektashi Shiism, a mystical Dervish order that came to Albania through the Albanian Janissaries that served in the Ottoman army and whose members practised Albanian pagan rites under a nominal Islamic cover. After the Bektashis were banned in Turkey in 1925 by Atatürk, the order moved its headquarters to Tirana and the Albanian government subsequently recognized it as a body independent from Sunnism. Sunni Muslims were estimated to represent approximately 50% of the country's population before 1939, while Bektashi represented another 20%. There is also a relatively small minority which belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Muslim populations have been particularly strong in eastern and northern Albania and among Albanians living in Kosovo and Macedonia.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Sunni Muslims have historically lived in the cities of Albania, while Bektashis mainly live in remote areas, whereas Orthodox Christians mainly live in the south, and Roman Catholics mainly live in the north of the country. However, this division does not apply nowadays. In a study by Pew Research, 65% of Albanian Muslims did not specify a branch of Islam that they belonged to. The Albanian census doesn't differentiate between Bektashis and Sunnis, but instead between Bektashis and "Muslims", but since Bektashis are in fact Muslim many were listed as Muslims. Bektashi-majority areas include Skrapari, Dishnica, Erseka and Bulqiza while Bektashis also have large, possibly majority concentrations in Kruja, Mallakastra, Tepelena, large pockets of the Gjirokastër and Delvina Districts (i.e. Gjirokastër itself, Lazarat, etc.), and Western and Northeastern parts of the Vlora district. There are also historically substantial Bektashi minorities around Elbasan, Berat, Leskovik, Perm, Saranda and Pogradec. In Kosovo and Macedonia there were pockets of Bektashis in Gjakova, Prizren and Tetova. In the Albanian census, a few of these areas, such as Skrapari and Dishnica, saw the Bektashi population mostly labeled "Bektashi" while in most other areas such as Kruja it was mostly labeled "Muslim". The classification of children of mixed marriages between Sunnis and Bektashis or the widespread phenomenon of both groups marrying Orthodox Albanians also have inconsistent classification and oftentimes the offspring of such unions associate with both of their parents' faiths and occasionally practice both.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In December 1992 Albania became a full member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation).


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Bektashi Order was widespread in the Ottoman Empire, with most leading Bektashi babas from southern Albania. The Bektashi order was banned throughout the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826. After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk banned all Sufi orders in 1925, the Bektashi leadership moved to Albania and established their headquarters in the city of Tirana, where the community declared its separation from the Sunni. Under communist rule from 1945 - 1990, Bektashism was banned in Albania.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Many "tekkes" "(lodges)" operate today in Albania. Approximately 20% of Muslims identify themselves as having some connection to Bektashism.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Of the remaining mystical orders in Albania besides the Bektashi, there are those that associate with the mainline Sunni establishment, as well as those who feel themselves to be distant from both the Sunnis and Bektashis, and in terms of organization have oscillated between association with the Sunni establishment, with the Bektashis, and as their own independent organization. Today, these sects, the largest of them being the Halveti Order, and are organized and collectively referred to in Albania as the "Alevian Community" () or the "Alevian Sects" (). There are other mystical orders who associate more with the Sunni establishment. There is no known direct relation of Alevjans to Turkish "Alevis" or Syrian "Alawites" except their ambiguous position between Sunnism and Shi'ism, also a characteristic of Bektashism.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Halveti order first started to spread in Southern Albania in the 16th century and gained many followers later. They are considered to be less numerous than the Bektashis (and occasionally confused with them) but still significant. During periods of suppression of the Bektashis by the Ottoman authorities, Bektashi tekkes were often conferred upon the Halvetis, such as happened in Kanina, near Vlora There are large concentrations of Halvetis in Devoll, Tropoja, Luma (around Kukes) and in mountainous valleys in the Kurvelesh region. Halvetis also live near Bektashis in Mallakastra, Tepelena, Gjirokastra, Delvina, Permet, Leskovik, Korca, and the city of Berat. The first Albanian Halveti tekke however was in Ioannina, now Greece. After the fall of communism, in 1998, it was reported that there were 42 Bektashi tekkes in Albania. On the census Halvetis are not reported and are usually grouped under generalized "Muslims", although in public discourse they are frequently grouped with Bektashis. Halvetis are said to dislike both the dominance of mainline Sunnis in the generic "Muslim" community and the non-recognition of their sect's separate existence, but also the dominance of Bektashis in the Sufi scene.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Besides the two most popular Dervish orders in Albania (Bektashis and Halvetis), there are three other significant Sufi orders: the Kadris (also known as "Kadris" or "Zinxhiris"), the Sadis and the Rufais.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Rufais originated in Iraq as the "Rifa'is", from the teachings of the jurist Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Rifa'i. In the late 19th century there was a flourishing Rufai community around Gjakova, in Kosovo, which helped spread the sect in various parts of Albania. During the early years of the 20th century some Rufai tekkes became Bektashi. At the same time, in the same period the order spread to Tropoja, Tirana, Petrela and parts of Southern Albania. In Albania all of their tekkes were closed due to the banning of religion under Communism, but in Yugoslavia the order continued to operate major tekkes in Gjakova, Mitrovica, Skopje, Peja, Rahovec and Prizren. After the fall of Communism, the order reconstituted itself in Albania and opened a tekke in Tirana in 1998.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Sa'dis originated in Damascus and in Albania have a close relationship with the Bektashis. Both were favored by Ali Pasha and they looked after and venerated each other's holy places and tombs. There was a Sa'di tekke in Gjakova in 1600, and two Sa'di tekkes in Tepelena two centuries later, as well as some historical presence in Tropoja, Gjirokastër, Elbasan and Peza. In 1980 in Kosovo, there are 10 operating Sa'di tekkes.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Kadris first originated as a distinct sect in Istanbul in the 17th century, then were spread to the Balkans as the "Zindjiris" by Ali Baba of Crete, originally spreading from within the Bektashi community. There are Kadri tekkes in Tirana, Berat and Peqin, but the main center of the Kadris is Peshkopia in Diber County. In 1945 they were finally recognized as a distinct religious community; since the fall of Communism, they have reconstituted themselves and now have an operating tekke in Peshkopia.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the 2011 census, about 10.03% of Albania's population declared Roman Catholic Christianity as of 2011 census. Albania once numbered eighteen episcopal Sees, some of them having uninterrupted activity from the dawn of the Catholicism until today. The country has been a Roman Catholic bridgehead in the Balkans, with Catholic Albanians playing a role not unlike the Croats in the former Yugoslavia. In the Middle Ages, Albania was ruled by many Catholic rulers, including natives but notably the Angevins and it became a site of the spread of Catholicism in the Balkans at the expense of Orthodoxy as previously Orthodox Albanian nobles and their subjects converted as they grew increasingly loyal to the Western powers as a way to fend off threats coming from Orthodox political entities. Despite the ascendance of Catholicism at the time, Orthodox minorities remained. Before long, Durrës and Kruja became major centers of Balkan Catholicism, and in 1167 it was a significant event when Kruja became a Catholic bishopric, with the new bishop consecrated by the Pope himself. Vlora and Butrint also saw Catholicization, and at the peak of Catholic power in the Balkans with Albania as a stronghold, Catholic structures began appearing as far afield as Skopje in 1326. At the end of the 14th century, the previously Orthodox Autocephalous Archbishopric of Ohrid was dismantled in favor of the Catholic rite.


title: Religion in Albania

text: However, Ottoman rule ultimately vastly decreased the number of Catholics in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans, with waves of conversions to Islam and to a lesser extent Orthodoxy occurring especially in the 17th century after a series of failed rebellions and punitive measures which involved drastic raises in the taxes of the Catholic population. The tribal population of Mirdita saw very few conversions because the ease they had defending their terrain meant the Ottomans interfered less in their affairs, and the Republic of Venice prevented Islamisation in Venetian Albania. Today, Catholic Albanians are mostly found in the areas of Malesia e Madhe, Kiri, Puka, Tropoja (where they are a minority), Mirdita, parts of northwestern Mat, Kurbin, Lezhe, Zadrima, Shkodër and Ulqin (where they live alongside very large numbers of Sunni Muslims), minorities in Kruja and some major cities, as well as scattered pockets throughout Gheg-inhabited areas. While there remained a small Albanian Catholic community in Vlore during Ottoman times, larger numbers of Catholics started were reported in the South after the fall of Communism, often in traditionally Orthodox areas.


title: Religion in Albania

text: For four centuries, the Catholic Albanians defended their faith, aided by Franciscan missionaries, beginning in the middle of the 17th century, when persecution by Ottoman Turkish lords in Albania started to result in the conversion of many villages to the Islamic faith.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The College of Propaganda at Rome played a significant role in the religious and moral support of the Albanian Catholics. During the 17 and 18 centuries, the College contributed in educating young clerics appointed to service on Albanian missions, as well as to the financial support of the churches. Work was done by the Austrian Government at the time, which offered significant financial aid in its role as Protector of the Christian community under Ottoman rule.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Church legislation of the Albanians was reformed by Clement XI, who convoked a general ecclesiastical visitation, held in 1763 by the Archbishop of Antivari, by the end of which a national synod was held. The decrees formulated by the Synod were printed by the College of Propaganda in 1705, and renewed in 1803. In 1872, Pius IX convoked a second national synod at Shkodër, for the revival of the popular and ecclesiastical life. Owing to Austrian interest in Albania, the institution of the Catholic bishops of Albania was obtained through a civil decree released by the Vilajet of Berat.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The last two archiepiscopal provinces did not have any suffragans, and depended directly on the Holy See. A seminary, founded in 1858 by Archbishop Topich of Scutari, was destroyed by the Ottomans, but was later re-established on Austrian territory and placed under imperial protection.


title: Religion in Albania

text: According to the 2011 Census, 6.75% of the Albanian population adhere to the Albanian Orthodox Church. Three ethnic groups, Albanians, Greeks, and Aromanians, account for the vast majority of Albania's Orthodox believers. Metropolitan Theofan Fan Noli established the Albanian Orthodox Mission under the American diocese.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Although Orthodox Christianity has existed in Albania since the 2nd century AD, and the Orthodox historically constituted 20% of the population of Albania, the first Orthodox liturgy in the Albanian language was celebrated not in Albania, but in Massachusetts. Subsequently, when the Orthodox Church was allowed no official existence in communist Albania, Albanian Orthodoxy survived in exile in Boston (1960–89). It is a curious history that closely entwines Albanian Orthodoxy with the Bay State.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Between 1890 and 1920, approximately 25,000 Albanians, the majority of them Orthodox Christians from southeastern Albania, emigrated to the United States, settling in and around Boston. Like many other Orthodox immigrants, they were predominantly young, illiterate, male peasants. Like so many other Balkan immigrants, a large number (almost 10,000) returned to their homeland after World War I.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Since the 2nd century AD, the liturgical services, schools and activities of the Orthodox Church in Albania had been conducted in Greek. When Albania came under Ottoman influence in the 15th century the Orthodox people of Albania were members of the Archbishopric of Ohrid which was officially recognized by the Ottoman Empire.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Those Albanian Orthodox, who, in the fashion of 19th century Balkan nationalism, sought to see their church as an "Albanian" rather than "Greek" body, were frequently excommunicated by the Greek-speaking hierarchy. Considering that identity during the Ottoman centuries was defined primarily by religious affiliations, such questions in the post-Ottoman period loomed large in the burgeoning national and cultural identities. After the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople lost in 1870 jurisdictional control over the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire, the Patriarchate did not desire further schisms within its ranks. Indeed, so strong was the rivalry of Greeks with Orthodox Albanians who opted for separate cultural activities, that some of the latter category such as Papa Kristo Negovani, a priest educated in Greek schools, Sotir Ollani, Petro Nini Luarasi, Nuci Naco and others were murdered for their patriotic efforts.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Nationalist fervor ran high in Albanian immigrant communities in North America. When, in 1906, a Greek priest from an independent Greek parish in Hudson, Massachusetts, refused to bury an Albanian nationalist, an outraged Albanian community petitioned the missionary diocese to assist them in establishing a separate Albanian-language parish within the missionary diocese. Fan Noli, an ardent Albanian nationalist and former parish cantor, was subsequently ordained in February 1908 by a sympathetic Metropolitan Platon to serve this new Albanian parish. Noli went on to organize five additional Albanian parishes, mainly in Massachusetts, as an "Albanian Orthodox Mission in America" under the auspices of the American diocese.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Noli later emigrated to Albania, served as the Albanian delegate to the League of Nations, was consecrated Bishop and Primate of the independent Orthodox Church in Albania in 1923, and even served briefly as Prime Minister of Albania (came in power with the so-called "The Revolution of 1924") but was overthrown in a coup by Ahmet Zogu on the same year. After years in exile in Germany, Noli returned to the United States in 1932, studied at Harvard, translated Shakespeare into Albanian and Orthodox Scriptures and services into English, and led the Albanian Orthodox community in this country until his death in 1965.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Albanian Greek Catholic Church exists in southern Albania and is under an Apostolic Administration. It has less than 4,000 members.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the early 19th century, in accordance with the Protestant practice of making the Scriptures available to all people in their common tongue, the British and Foreign Bible Society began to make plans for the translation, printing, and distribution of the New Testament in Albanian. Soon Alexander Thomson, a Scottish missionary, joined the Society and visited Albania in 1863. Kostandin Kristoforidhi also joined the Society to translate the Scriptures in both Geg and Tosk dialects. In the late 19th century the Society's workers traveled throughout Albania distributing Bibles, under the leadership of Gjerasim Qiriazi who converted, preached the Gospel in Korça, and became the head of the first "Evangelical Brotherhood". Qiriazi sought official government recognition for the Albanian Evangelical Church in 1887, a pursuit which would not be fulfilled until 10 March 2011 by Law No. 10394.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The history of the Jews in Albania dates back at least 2,000 years dating back to 70 CE. Albanian Jews, predominantly Sephardi, have only constituted a very small percentage of the population in modern times .


title: Religion in Albania

text: In 1673 the charismatic Jewish prophet Sabbatai Zevi was exiled by the Turkish sultan to the Albanian port of Ulqin, now in Montenegro, dying there some years later.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Over the course of World War II Albania saw its Jewish population increase. During the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania banned all religions, including Judaism, in adherence to the doctrine of state atheism. In the post-Communist era, these policies were abandoned and freedom of religion was extended, although the number of practising Jews in Albania today remains small, with many Jews having made aliyah to Israel. Today Jews number around 150. In December 2010 Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar installed Rabbi Yoel Kaplan as the country's first Chief Rabbi. Recognition of Judaism as an official religion and Rabbi Kaplan as Chief Rabbi were the result of Prime Minister Sali Berisha's efforts.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Baháʼí Faith in Albania was introduced in the 1930s by Refo Çapari, an Albanian politician. Over the recent years several Baháʼí education centres have also been founded.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Irreligion is and has been historically present among Albanians. Nowadays, estimations of the size of the irreligious population vary widely. The self-declared atheist population has been given figures ranging from 2.5% to 8% to 9% while other estimates of irreligiosity have reported figures of 39% declaring as "atheists"(9%) or "nonreligious"(30%), 61% not saying religion was "important" to their lives, and 72% "non-practising".


title: Religion in Albania

text: Albanian national revivalists in the 19th century such as Faik Konica, Jani Vreto, and Zef Jubani were often anti-clerical in rhetoric (Konica said in 1897: "Every faith religion makes me puke", or ), but the first advocate of atheism in modern Albania is thought to have been Ismet Toto, a publicist and revolutionary whose 1934 anti-religious polemic, "Grindje me klerin", was one of the first known works advocating against the practice of religion itself in the Albanian language.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Under Socialist rule in 1967, leader Enver Hoxha persecuted and outlawed public religious practice and adopted state atheism.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Some well-known Albanian contemporary atheists include Ismail Kadare, Dritëro Agolli, Ben Blushi, Fatos Lubonja, Mustafa Nano, Saimir Pirgu, Diana Çuli, Gilman Bakalli, Fatos Tarifa, Blendi Fevziu , , Elton Deda, and .


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the 2011 census, 56.7% of Albanians declared themselves to be Sunni Muslims, making Islam the largest religion in the country. Christianity was declared by 16.99% of the population, making it the 2nd largest religion in the country. The remaining portion of the population is either irreligious or belongs to other religious groups.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Muslims are found throughout the country, while Orthodox followers are concentrated in the south and Catholics are concentrated in the north. However, this division is not strict, particularly in many urban centers, which have mixed populations. Members of the Greek minority, concentrated in the south, are almost exclusively Orthodox and belong to the Orthodox Church of Albania. In addition to the four traditional religious groups, there are substantial numbers of followers of Protestant denominations, Baháʼís, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and other religious groups.


title: Religion in Albania

text: According to other older sources, up to 75 percent of the population in Albania has declared no religious affiliation since the early 1990s.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The State Committee on Cults reported a total of 245 religious groups, organizations, and foundations in addition to the 4 traditional faiths. This number includes 34 different Islamic organizations and 189 Protestant organizations, mostly associated with the Albanian Evangelical Brotherhood (Vëllazëria Ungjillore Shqiptare).


title: Religion in Albania

text: These are only the official statistics of 1935, however, and since then much has changed. Bashkim Zeneli, former Albanian ambassador to Greece, said that about 900,000 Albanians have emigrated to Greece in 20 years, and around 200,000 of them have returned to Albania. From this, around 240,000 are said to be Muslim by heritage, and around 85,000 have returned to Albania. Although they presently live in Albania, a lot of them continue to be Orthodox.


title: Religion in Albania

text: According to the 2007–2008 Gallup polls, 63% of Albanians state that religion does not play an important role in their lives.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In a census performed before World War II, a rough distribution of the population was 70% Muslim, 20% Eastern Orthodox, and 10% Roman Catholic. 65% of Albanian Muslims did not associate with particular sect of Islam in a Pew survey. In 1967, religious practices were officially banned in Albania, making the country the first and only constitutionally atheist state to ever exist. After the fall of state communism, in 1991 religious activities resumed. Among people who follow any of the four major religions in Albania, there is a mixture of various religious traditions and pagan traditions coming from the time before Christianity.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Interfaith marriages between Muslims and Christians are held to be "common" and "unremarkable" in Albania with little social repercussion, although there is little statistical data on their prevalence. During the communist period, it is known that during the period of 1950–1968, the rates of mixed marriages ranged from 1.6% in Shkodër, 4.3% in Gjirokastër to 15.5% among the textile workers in Tiranë. In the district of Shkodër they reached 5% in the year 1980.


title: Religion in Albania

text: However, even among those who declared themselves to be adherents of a religion, the majority of the population in Albania has a more secular interpretation of religion than that which would be found in other countries. In August 2012, a Pew Research study found that only 15% of the Muslim population for example, considers religion to be a very important factor in their lives, which was the lowest percentage in the world amongst countries with significant Muslim populations. Another survey conducted by Gallup Global Reports 2010 shows that religion plays a role to 39% of Albanians, and lists Albania as the thirteenth least religious country in the world. Also in Albania the majority of the males are not circumcised (as demanded by Islamic custom).


title: Religion in Albania

text: A medical study from 2008 in Tirana on the relationship between religious observance and acute coronary syndrome found out that 67% of Muslims and 55% of Christians were completely religiously non-observant. The regular attendance of religious institutions (at least once every 2 weeks) was low in both denominations (6% in Muslims and 9% in Christians), and weekly attendance was very low (2% and 1%, respectively). Frequent praying (at least 2 to 3 times per week) was higher in Christians (29%) than in Muslims (17%) Praying several times daily (as required of devout Muslims) was rare (2% in Muslims and 3% in Christians). Regular fasting during Ramadan or Lent was similarly low in Muslims and Christians (5% and 6%, respectively). Generally Christians in the study were more observant than Muslims (26% vs 17%).


title: Religion in Albania

text: A 2015 study on the Albanian youth aged 16–27 found that total of 80 percent of young people in Albania are not religion practitioners and practise their religion only during the main religious holidays and festivities. Specifically 23 percent of the respondents never practised their religion, while 61 percent practised it only in religious holidays. From the rest, 11 percent practised it 1–2 times a week, while 5 percent practised it every day.


title: Religion in Albania

text: In the European Values Survey in 2008, Albania had the highest unbelief in life after death among all other countries, with 74.3% not believing in it.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Estimates of the 2018 published Swiss Metadatabase of Religious Affiliation (SMRE) assume for the period 2000 (1996–2005) 8% Catholics, 15% Orthodox, 65.9% Muslims and 10.9% people with no religious affiliation. For the period 2010 (2006–2015) the SMRE estimates 8.7% Catholics, 9.1% Orthodox, 52.5% Muslim and 29.5% people with no religious affiliation.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The results of the 2011 census, however, have been criticized as questionable on a number of grounds. The Albanian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the results, saying they had drastically underrepresented the number of Orthodox Christians and noted various indications of this and ways in which it may have occurred. The Orthodox church claimed that from its own calculations, the Orthodox percentage should have been around 24%, rather than 6.75%. Meanwhile, the Bektashi leadership also lambasted the results, which even more drastically reduced their representation down to 2%, also rejected the results and said it would conduct its own census to refute the results.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Minority organizations of Greeks (mostly Orthodox) and Roma (mostly Muslim) also claimed that minorities were underrepresented and the Greek organization Omonia argued that this was linked to the under-representation of the Orthodox population.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Orthodox percentage reported might be lower than the actual value due to boycotts of the census, but also because the census staff failed to contact a very large number of people in the south which is traditionally an Orthodox stronghold. The Orthodox Church said that according to a questionnaire it gave its followers during two Sunday liturgies in urban centers such as Durrësi, Berati and Korça, only 34% of its followers were actually contacted. The districts of Lushnja and Fieri (comprising the historic region of Myzeqe), which are far from any international borders and have an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian population (except for a few Vlachs and Roma), were historically around 55% and 65% Orthodox historically, reported figures roughly were a factor of five times lower. This caused furor in the Albanian media, with an Orthodox Albanian politician Dritan Prifti who at the time was a prominent MP for the Myzeqe region saying that in Myzeqe alone there should be about 200,000 Orthodox Albanians- a bigger number than reported for the whole of Albania and referred to fluctuating census numbers regarding the Orthodox community as being due to an "anti-Orthodox agenda" in Albania.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Albanian Catholic Bishops Conference also cast doubts on the census, complaining that many of its believers were not contacted.


title: Religion in Albania

text: According to the Council of Europe ("Third Opinion of the Council of Europe on Albania adopted 23.11.2011,") the results of the census "should be viewed with the utmost caution and calls on the authorities not to rely exclusively on the data on nationality collected during the census in determining its policy on the protection of national minorities."


title: Religion in Albania

text: Moreover, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has expressed concern at the methodology and results of the Albania Census 2011. He has raised questions in regard to the reliability of the process which, he said, has implications for the rights of religious minorities and religious freedoms guaranteed in the country's constitution. Tveit expressed this concern in letters issued at the beginning of May to the WCC president Archbishop Anastasios, to Prof. Dr Heiner Bielefeldt, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and to the Albanian government.


title: Religion in Albania

text: There were other serious allegations about the conduct of the census workers that might have impacted on the 2011 census results. There were some reported cases where workers filled out the questionnaire about religion without even asking the participants or that the workers used pencils which were not allowed. In some cases communities declared that census workers never even contacted them. Additionally, the preliminary results released seemed to give widely different results, with 70% of respondents refusing to declare belief in any of the listed faiths, compared with only 16% of atheists and undeclared in the final results. It was reported in Albanian media that there were instances of pollsters telling respondents that the religion question would be filled out for them. Some Albanian commenters also argue that the census takers guessed religion based on the responders family names and that even the census responders did give an answer based on family origin and not actual religion.


title: Religion in Albania

text: According to 2008 statistics from the religious communities in Albania, there are 1119 churches and 638 mosques in the country. The Roman Catholic mission declared 694 Catholic churches. The Christian Orthodox community, 425 Orthodox churches. The Muslim community, 568 mosques, and 70 Bektashi tekkes.


title: Religion in Albania

text: The Constitution extends freedom of religion to all citizens and the government generally respects this right in practice. The Albanian Constitution declares no official religion and provides for equality of all religions; however, the predominant religious communities (Bektashi, Sunni Muslim, Orthodox and Roman Catholic) enjoy a greater degree of official recognition (e.g. national holidays) and social status based on their historical presence in the country. All registered religious groups have the right to hold bank accounts and to own property and buildings. Religious freedoms have in large part been secured by the generally amicable relationship among religions. The Ministry of Education has the right to approve the curricula of religious schools to ensure their compliance with national education standards while the State Committee on Cults oversees implementation. There are also 68 vocational training centers administered by religious communities.


title: Religion in Albania

text: Government policy and practice contributed to the generally free exercise of religion. The government is secular and the Ministry of Education asserts that public schools in the country are secular and that the law prohibits ideological and religious indoctrination. Religion is not taught in public schools.


title: Madhuri Dixit filmography

text: Madhuri Dixit is an Indian actress, film producer, television personality, musical artist and dancer known for her works in Hindi films. She made her acting debut in 1984 with "Abodh" where she portrayed a young bride. Dixit went on to appear in several films over the next three years, including the dramas "Awara Baap" (1985) and "Swati" (1986), though none of them garnered her much recognition. The role of Mohini in N. Chandra's action romance drama "Tezaab" (1988) proved to be a breakthrough for Dixit. The film went on to become the highest-grossing film of that year. For her performance, Dixit received a Best Actress nomination at Filmfare. She achieved further success by featuring as the female lead in several top-grossing action-dramas, including "Ram Lakhan" (1989), "Tridev" (1989), and "Kishen Kanhaiya" (1990). The role of a wealthy brat in the 1990 romantic drama "Dil" earned Dixit her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. The following year, she starred in another box-office hit "Saajan", and won a second Best Actress award at Filmfare for portraying the role of a strong woman who rebels against her manipulative mother-in-law in the 1992 drama "Beta".


title: Madhuri Dixit filmography

text: She featured alongside Jackie Shroff and Sanjay Dutt in the action thriller "Khalnayak" (1993), one of the highest-grossing films of that year. Subsequently, she played an avenger in the drama "Anjaam" (1994) to positive reviews. Dixit's subsequent release was Sooraj Barjatya's "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" (1994), a family drama which emerged as the highest-grossing Bollywood film to that point. The following year, she featured in "Raja" (1995) which was a blockbuster film of that year and "Yaraana in" which she played a woman who attempts an escape from her abusive husband. Both of her releases in 1996—"Rajkumar" and "Prem Granth—"were financial failures. Dixit's portrayal of a headstrong dancer in Yash Chopra's 1997 romance "Dil To Pagal Hai" was a major success, earning her a fourth Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She garnered critical acclaim for her work in the dramas "Mrityudand" (1997), "Wajood" (1998) and "Pukar" (2000). She portrayed five roles in the experimental film "Gaja Gamini" (2000).


title: Madhuri Dixit filmography

text: Dixit was praised for her supporting role as a woman fighting against gender discrimination in "Lajja" (2001), a drama on women's rights, which performed poorly at the box-office. The year 2002 saw Dixit starring in two romantic dramas, including "Devdas" opposite Shah Rukh Khan, in which she played the role of Chandramukhi, a courtesan in love with an alcoholic. For the film, she won a Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. After a five-year absence from the screen, Dixit played a leading role in Anil Mehta's dance film "Aaja Nachle" (2007). Despite the film's failure at the box-office, her performance was praised. The widely praised role of a con woman Begum Para in Abhishek Chaubey's black comedy film "Dedh Ishqiya" (2014) marked her first acting role in seven years, she received her 14th Best Actress nomination at Filmfare for it. She followed it by playing the leader of a vigilante group in the action crime drama film "Gulaab Gang". Her highest-grossing release came with the adventure comedy "Total Dhamaal" (2019), which ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. On television, Dixit has served as a talent judge for the dance reality shows "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" (2010–2014, 2022) and "Dance Deewane" (2018–2021).


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Sir Roderic Victor Llewellyn, 5th Baronet (born 9 October 1947), is a British baronet, garden designer, journalist, author, and television presenter. He had an eight-year relationship with Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn was born in Crickhowell, Brecknockshire, the younger son of Sir Harry Llewellyn, 3rd Bt. (d. 1999), an Olympic gold medallist in show jumping, and his wife, the Hon. Christine Saumarez (d. 1998). He was educated at Shrewsbury School and then received a National Certificate in Horticulture at Merrist Wood College. In 2009, he succeeded his elder brother, Dai, to the Llewellyn baronetcy.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: In 2012, Llewellyn discussed his early life at Gobion Manor and later, at Llanfair Grange, with some sadness. His parents were often away at equestrian events, and his nanny, Rebecca Jenkins, became his muse, encouraging the boy's gardening. By age 7, he was sent to Hawtreys, a boarding school.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Beginning in 1973, Llewellyn, then aged 25, began an affair with Princess Margaret, then 43. They had met in Scotland at the Café Royal in Edinburgh in September 1973. Margaret's biographer Theo Aronson made this comment some years later, "He was well-mannered, well-spoken, and amusing; above all, he was very sweet-natured."


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: In 1976, photographs of the couple in Mustique led to a scandal. In the tabloids, he was referred to as her "toy boy". Llewellyn issued a public statement which said, "I much regret any embarrassment caused to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family, for whom I wish to express the greatest respect, admiration and loyalty".


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: The much publicised eight-year relationship was a factor in the dissolution of the princess's marriage to the Earl of Snowdon. After Princess Margaret's break-up with Llewellyn, she destroyed all of their correspondence, according to her then chauffeur, David Griffin.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: According to Anne Tennant, Baroness Glenconner, quoted in the 2018 documentary "Elizabeth: Our Queen", the monarch discussed Llewellyn with her after Princess Margaret's funeral in 2002. She offered Lady Glenconner thanks for having introduced her sister to him because "he made her really happy".


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: On 11 July 1981, Llewellyn married Tatiana Soskin, a daughter of film producer Paul Soskin. The couple have three daughters, Alexandra, Natasha, and Rosie. Alexandra, the eldest, is a designer and artist.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn has said, "I have always been fascinated by plants...They give me an enormous amount of solace."


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: It was apparently his nanny, Rebecca Jenkins, who introduced him to gardening. When the family removed to Llanfair Grange, Llewellyn said, "we had huge lawns and wonderful views. It was pretty country...it had a big vegetable garden and fabulous trees." Throughout Llewellyn always regarded himself as part of that rich Welsh heritage beneath the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Llewellyn runs his own company, Roddy Llewellyn's Garden Design.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: He regularly lectures, appearing at venues including the Retirement Show at Olympia, Glasgow and Manchester (chairing question and answer sessions), Dobbies Garden Centre ("Inspirational Ideas for the Garden"), Hereford Cathedral ("Interesting Ideas for the Garden"), Malvern Spring Gardening Show ("Who are better Gardeners – Men or Women?"), Cotswold Wildlife Park (series, "An Evening with the Gardening Experts 2005–2006"), Cholmondeley Castle ("Amusing Ideas for the Garden"), and the ship the "Crystal Symphony" (on a garden design theme cruise giving "themed lectures").


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: His published books include "Town Garden"s, "Beautiful Backyards", "Water Gardens: The Connoisseur's Choice", "Elegance & Eccentricity", "Growing Gifts", "Grow It Yourself: Gardening with a Physical Disability" and "Roddy Llewellyn's Gardening Year".


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn has written books, magazine articles, and newspaper columns on the subject of gardening. The magazines he has written for have included "Heritage Homes" in 2006, "Country Life" in 2005 and 2006, "Country Illustrated" in 2004 and 2006, "Oxfordshire Limited Edition" in 2006, "The Lady" in 2005, "Eden Project Friends" in 2004, and "The Sunday Times" in 2004. He wrote columns for the "Daily Star" from 1981 to 1985, and "The Mail on Sunday" from 1987 to 1999.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: He presented "The Home Show" in 1990 and "The Gardening Roadshow" in 1992–93 for Thames Television, amongst several other programmes. He appeared on "Gardeners' World" in 2007.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn released a pop music album of standards in 1978, "Roddy", but found that the news media was interested only in his personal life. The album achieved little success.


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn served as an assistant herald at the College of Arms and was noted as "liking to trace ancestries".


title: Roddy Llewellyn

text: Llewellyn is portrayed by Simon Woods in the 2005 film "The Queen's Sister", and by Harry Treadaway in the Netflix series "The Crown".


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which (in most Regular Masonic jurisdictions) only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Like the Masonic Red Cross of Constantine being inspired by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Order of Malta being inspired by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Masonic order of Knights Templar derives its name from the medieval Catholic military order Knights Templar. However, it does not claim any direct lineal descent from the original Templar order.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The earliest documented link between Freemasonry and the Crusades is the 1737 oration of the Chevalier Ramsay. This claimed that European Freemasonry came about from an interaction between crusader masons and the Knights Hospitaller. This is repeated in the earliest known "Moderns" ritual, the Berne manuscript, written in French between 1740 and 1744. Ramsay was initiated as a Templar by his mentor François Fénelon into the non-Masonic French "Ordre du Temple" with his friend Philippe II, Duke of Orleans as Grandmaster around 1710. After the death of Fenelon and the Duke of Orleans, Ramsay was initiated into Freemasonry around 1730. Since Ramsay's Templarism predated his relationship with Freemasonry by some 20 years, this is the likely source for the introduction of Templarism into Freemasonry.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: In 1751 Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund und Altengrotkau began the Order of Strict Observance, which ritual he claimed to have received from the reconstituted Templar Order in 1743 in Paris. He also claimed to have met two of the "unknown superiors" who directed all of masonry, one of whom was Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The order went into decline when he failed to produce any evidence to support his claims, and was wound up shortly after his death.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: In 1779 the High Knights Templar of Ireland Lodge, Kilwinning, obtained a charter from Lodge Mother Kilwinning in Scotland. This lodge now began to grant dispensations to other lodges to confer the Knights Templar Degree. Some time around 1790 the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland was formed, which began to warrant Templar Lodges, and evolved into the Supreme Grand Encampment in 1836. The Early Grand Encampment chartered several Scottish "encampments" one of which, having been chartered in 1805 as the "Edinburgh Encampment No. 31", then became the"Grand Assembly of Knights Templar in Edinburgh". who then sought a charter from the Duke of Kent, Grand Master of the Order in England. It seems that the Templar degree had filtered into the lodges of the Antients from Ireland about 1780, and was recorded at York about the same time. In the five degree system developed by the York Masons, the Knights Templar degree sat between the Master Mason and the Sublime Degree of Royal Arch.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Templar masonry in England entered a new era in 1791, with the formation of its first Grand Conclave, with Thomas Dunckerley as Grand Master. At that time, there were eight known Templar encampments in England, the most senior being the Encampment of Redemption at York, and the Baldwyn encampment at Bristol, at whose request Dunckerley began his mission. Under his leadership, the number of encampments steadily grew until his death in 1795. Stasis then followed, until in 1805 their Royal Patron, Duke of Kent, became Grand Master himself, re-energising the society and launching it into an era of growth and development. Dunckerley laid the foundation for this not only by promoting the order, but by standardising the ritual and insisting on proper record keeping. The Grand Conclave went into a period of decline between 1872 and 1895, when it was re-founded as the present day Great Priory of England and Wales.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Depending upon the geographical jurisdiction, the Knights Templar exist either as part of the York Rite or as an independent organization. Though the York Rite and the independent versions share many similarities there are key differences which are described below.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Outside the York Rite, membership is by invitation only. Candidates are required to be Master Masons, and Royal Arch Masons, and to sign a declaration that they profess the Doctrine of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. In some Australian States, the requirement of being a Royal Arch Mason no longer applies.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Local bodies of Knights Templar are known as Preceptories; local bodies of Knights of St Paul are known as Chapters; local bodies of Knights of Malta are known as Priories; all operate under a Grand or Great Priory, often with an intermediate level of Provincial Priories. Although some jurisdictions maintain a separate Great Priory of the Temple and Great Priory of Malta (as, for example, in England), the Grand Master and other officers of both Great Priories hold simultaneous equal office in both bodies. Three degrees are administered in this system:


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: In England and Wales, the "Great Priory of England and Wales" for the Masonic Knights Templar is administrated from Mark Masons' Hall, London.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The Order of the Red Cross continues or reverts to the period of the Royal Arch Degree when the Israelites were returning from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. Zerubbabel, their leader prevails upon King Darius to restore the Holy Vessels to the new Temple. They had been carried away by the Babylonian armies when the first Temple was destroyed. In presenting his plea before the King, the companion gives a powerful testimony to the almighty force of Truth.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The ritual places the candidate in the role of Zerubbabel and follows him through his journey to King Darius in Persia and his role in the Immemorial Discussion, as found in the apocryphal book, 1 Esdras. The purpose is to bridge the gap between Royal Arch Masonry and the Chivalric Orders as well as between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Illustrious Order of the Red Cross teaches the lessons of the triumph of truth.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: This degree is conferred as a prerequisite to becoming a Knight of Malta, in both the York Rite and independent 'stand-alone' versions of Knight Templar Freemasonry. The "Preliminary Declarations" of the Order of Malta ritual in England state of a candidate for the Order of Malta: "He must also have received the Degree of Knight of St Paul, including the Mediterranean Pass". The exact status of the 'Mediterranean Pass' has at times led to confusion as to whether this is the 'stub' of a separate degree. The English ritual book clarified this in its 1989 edition (and subsequent editions) by stating: "The Mediterranean Pass is one of the secrets of the Degree of Knight of St Paul".


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: This degree is close to being a true 'side degree', in that a small group (usually three) of members of the degree take the candidate "to one side" (i.e. apart on his own) and simply communicate the secrets of the degree to him, without actually working the ceremonial ritual of the degree. The only respect in which the degree fails to meet the definition of a true 'side degree' is that a Chapter of the Order would be formally opened and closed by the presiding officer, on either side of the secrets being communicated.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: This degree is universally associated with the Masonic Knights Templar. In the York Rite system it is conferred before the Templar Degree; in the 'stand-alone' tradition it is conferred subsequently to the Templar Degree. It is known by varying degrees of formality as the "Order of Malta", or the "Order of Knights of Malta", or the "Ancient and Masonic Order of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes, and Malta". In practice this last and fullest version of the name tends to be reserved to letterheads, rituals, and formal documents.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The ceremony for conferring the degree (which is always worked in full) contains a mixture of masonic tradition, historical accounts of the Order of St John, moral teaching, and the communication of modes of recognition between members. A series of banners is employed in the ceremony, each representing one of the great battles of the historic medieval Order of St John, whose story is the basis of the moral teachings of the degree.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The original medieval Order of Knights Templar was established after the First Crusade, and existed from approximately 1118 to 1312. There is no known historical evidence to link the medieval Knights Templar and Masonic Templarism, nor do the Masonic Knights Templar organizations claim any such direct link to the original medieval Templar organization. Though it has been said that its affiliation with Masonry is based on texts that indicate persecuted Templars found refuge within the safety of Freemasonry, the order itself states that "there is no proof of direct connection between the ancient order and the modern order known today as the Knights Templar." The official motto of the Knights Templar is In Hoc Signo Vinces, the rendition in Latin of the Greek phrase "εν τούτῳ νίκα", en toutōi nika, meaning "in this [sign] you will conquer".


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The Knight Templar degree is associated with elaborate regalia (costume) the precise detail of which varies between nations. The ritual draws upon the traditions of medieval Knights Templar, using them to impart moral instruction consistent with the biblical teachings of the Christian tradition.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: In England and Wales, the teachings of the Order of the Red Cross feature in the "Red Cross of Babylon" which forms part of the Allied Masonic Degrees.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: The Order of the Red Cross is often considered a compressed version of the Red Cross Degrees or Green Degrees which make up the Order of Knight Masons.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: In the United States, a Knights Templar commandery is traditionally the final body that a member joins in the York Rite after the chapter of Royal Arch Masons and a council of Royal & Select Masters. Some jurisdictions, however, allow members to skip over membership in a council. A local Knights Templar commandery operates under a state-level Grand Commandery, however American commanderies also operate under The Grand Encampment of the United States. This is less common among American Masonic bodies, as many report to the state level alone.


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: While a chapter bestows the Royal Arch degrees, and a council bestows the Cryptic degrees, a Knights Templar commandery bestows three orders and one preparatory degree onto its members. This is opposed to the standard degree system found elsewhere in Freemasonry, and they are the only ones not to deal with the Hiramic Legend. The York Rite orders are:


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: History and legend concerning the historical Knights Templar also play an important role in the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, notably in the Rite's 30th Degree, Knight Kadosh. Other Scottish Rite degrees sometimes styled "Templar Degrees" include the 28th Degree (Knight Commander of the Temple, formerly denominated the 27th Degree in the Southern Jurisdiction of United States), the 29th Degree (Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew), the 32nd Degree (Master of the Royal Secret), and the 33rd Degree (Inspector General).


title: Knights Templar (Freemasonry)

text: Despite Freemasonry's general disclaimer that no one Masonic organization claims a direct heritage to the medieval Knights Templar, certain degrees and orders are obviously patterned after the medieval Order. These are best described as "commemorative orders" or degrees. Nevertheless, in spite of the fraternity's official disclaimers, some Masons, non-Masons and even anti-Masons insist that certain Masonic rites or degrees originally had direct Templar influence.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing meaning of words, ability to understand meaning of a word from discourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identify antecedents and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the main thought of a passage, ability to answer questions answered in a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or propositional structures used in a passage and determine its tone, to understand the situational mood (agents, objects, temporal and spatial reference points, casual and intentional inflections, etc.) conveyed for assertions, questioning, commanding, refraining etc. and finally ability to determine writer's purpose, intent and point of view, and draw inferences about the writer (discourse-semantics).


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are many reading strategies to improve reading comprehension and inferences, including improving one's vocabulary, critical text analysis (intertextuality, actual events vs. narration of events, etc.) and practicing deep reading.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Ability to comprehend text is influenced by readers' skills and their ability to process information. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.


title: Reading comprehension

text: People learn comprehension skills through education or instruction and some learn by direct experiences. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "the construction of thought processes".


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are specific characteristics that determine how successfully an individual will comprehend text, including prior knowledge about the subject, well-developed language, and the ability to make inferences from methodical questioning & monitoring comprehension like: "Why is this important?" and "Do I need to read the entire text?" are examples of passage questioning.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Instruction for comprehension strategy often involves initially aiding the students by social and imitation learning, wherein teachers explain genre styles and model both top-down and bottom-up strategies, and familiarize students with a required complexity of text comprehension. After the contiguity interface, the second stage involves gradual release of responsibility wherein over time teachers give students individual responsibility for using the learned strategies independently with remedial instruction as required and this helps in error management. The final stage involves leading the students to a self-regulated learning state with more and more practice and assessment, it leads to overlearning and the learned skills will become reflexive or "second nature". The teacher as reading instructor is a role model of a reader for students, demonstrating what it means to be an effective reader and the rewards of being one.


title: Reading comprehension

text: "The ability to understand information presented in the written form is called reading Comprehension". Comprehension is a "creative, multifaceted process" dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Reading comprehension involves two levels of processing, shallow (low-level) processing and deep (high-level) processing. Deep processing involves semantic processing, which happens when we encode the meaning of a word and relate it to similar words. Shallow processing involves structural and phonemic recognition, the processing of sentence and word structure, i.e. first-order logic, and their associated sounds. This theory was first identified by Fergus I. M. Craik and Robert S. Lockhart.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Comprehension levels are observed through neuroimaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI is used to determine the specific neural pathways of activation across two conditions, narrative-level comprehension and sentence-level comprehension. Images showed that there was less brain region activation during sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a shared reliance with comprehension pathways. The scans also showed an enhanced temporal activation during narrative levels tests indicating this approach activates situation and spatial processing. In general, neuroimaging studies have found that reading involves three overlapping neural systems: networks active in visual, orthography-phonology (angular gyrus), and semantic functions (anterior temporal lobe with Broca's and Wernicke's areas). However, these neural networks are not discrete, meaning these areas have several other functions as well. The Broca's area involved in executive functions helps the reader to vary depth of reading comprehension and textual engagement in accordance with reading goals.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Reading comprehension and vocabulary are inextricably linked together. The ability to decode or identify and pronounce words is self-evidently important, but knowing what the words mean has a major and direct effect on knowing what any specific passage means while skimming a reading material. It has been shown that students with a smaller vocabulary than other students comprehend less of what they read. It has been suggested that to improve comprehension, improving word groups, complex vocabularies such as homonyms or words that have multiple meanings, and those with figurative meanings like idioms, similes, collocations and metaphors are a good practice.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Andrew Biemiller argues that teachers should give out topic related words and phrases before reading a book to students, teaching includes topic related word groups, synonyms of words and their meaning with the context, and he further says to familiarize students with sentence structures in which these words commonly occur. Biemiller says this intensive approach gives students opportunities to explore the topic beyond its discourse – freedom of conceptual expansion. However, there is no evidence to suggest the primacy of this approach. Incidental morphemic analysis of words – prefixes, suffixes and roots – is also considered to improve understanding of the vocabulary, though they are proved to be an unreliable strategy for improving comprehension and is no longer used to teach students.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Initially most comprehension teaching was based on imparting selected techniques for each genre that when taken together would allow students to be strategic readers. However, from 1930s testing various methods never seemed to win support in empirical research. One such strategy for improving reading comprehension is the technique called SQ3R introduced by Francis Pleasant Robinson in his 1946 book "Effective Study".


title: Reading comprehension

text: Between 1969 and 2000, a number of "strategies" were devised for teaching students to employ self-guided methods for improving reading comprehension. In 1969 Anthony V. Manzo designed and found empirical support for the Re Quest, or Reciprocal Questioning Procedure, in traditional teacher-centered approach due to its sharing of "cognitive secrets". It was the first method to convert fundamental theory such as social learning into teaching methods through the use of cognitive modeling between teachers and students.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Since the turn of the 20th century, comprehension lessons usually consist of students answering teacher's questions or writing responses to questions of their own, or from prompts of the teacher. This detached whole group version only helped students individually to respond to portions of the text (content area reading), and improve their writing skills. In the last quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that academic reading test methods were more successful in assessing rather than imparting comprehension or giving a realistic insight. Instead of using the prior response registering method, research studies have concluded that an effective way to teach comprehension is to teach novice readers a bank of "practical reading strategies" or tools to interpret and analyze various categories and styles of text.


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are a variety of strategies used to teach reading. Strategies are key to help with reading comprehension. They vary according to the challenges like new concepts, unfamiliar vocabulary, long and complex sentences, etc. Trying to deal with all of these challenges at the same time may be unrealistic. Then again strategies should fit to the ability, aptitude and age level of the learner. Some of the strategies teachers use are: reading aloud, group work, and more reading exercises.


title: Reading comprehension

text: In the 1980s, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar and Ann L. Brown developed a technique called reciprocal teaching that taught students to predict, summarize, clarify, and ask questions for sections of a text. The use of strategies like summarizing after each paragraph has come to be seen as effective for building students' comprehension. The idea is that students will develop stronger reading comprehension skills on their own if the teacher gives them explicit mental tools for unpacking text.


title: Reading comprehension

text: "Instructional conversations", or comprehension through discussion, create higher-level thinking opportunities for students by promoting critical and aesthetic thinking about the text. According to Vivian Thayer, class discussions help students to generate ideas and new questions. (Goldenberg, p. 317). Dr. Neil Postman has said, "All our knowledge results from questions, which is another way of saying that question-asking is our most important intellectual tool" (Response to Intervention). There are several types of questions that a teacher should focus on: remembering; testing understanding; application or solving; invite synthesis or creating; and evaluation and judging. Teachers should model these types of questions through "think-alouds" before, during, and after reading a text. When a student can relate a passage to an experience, another book, or other facts about the world, they are "making a connection". Making connections help students understand the author's purpose and fiction or non-fiction story.


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are factors that, once discerned, make it easier for the reader to understand the written text. One is the genre, like folktales, historical fiction, biographies or poetry. Each genre has its own characteristics for text structure that once understood help the reader comprehend it. A story is composed of a plot, characters, setting, point of view, and theme. Informational books provide real-world knowledge for students and have unique features such as: headings, maps, vocabulary, and an index. Poems are written in different forms and the most commonly used are: rhymed verse, haikus, free verse, and narratives. Poetry uses devices such as: alliteration, repetition, rhyme, metaphors, and similes. "When children are familiar with genres, organizational patterns, and text features in books they're reading, they're better able to create those text factors in their own writing." Another one is arranging the text per perceptual span and a text display favorable to the age level of the reader.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Non-verbal imagery refers to media that utilize schemata to make connections either planned or not, more commonly used within context such as a passage, an experience, or one's imagination. Some notable examples are emojis, emoticons, cropped and uncropped images, and recently emojis which are images that are used to elicit humor and comprehension.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Visualization is a "mental image" created in a person's mind while reading text, which "brings words to life" and helps improve reading comprehension. Asking sensory questions will help students become better visualizers. Students can practice visualizing by imagining what they "see, hear, smell, taste, or feel" when they are reading a page of a picture book aloud, but not yet shown the picture. They can share their visualizations, then check their level of detail against the illustrations.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Partner reading is a strategy created for pairs. The teacher chooses two appropriate books for the students to read. First, the pupils and their partners must read their own book. Once they have completed this, they are given the opportunity to write down their own comprehension questions for their partner. The students swap books, read them out loud to one another and ask one another questions about the book they read. There are different levels of this. There are the lower ones who need extra help recording the strategies. The next level is the average who will still need some help. At a good level, the children require no help. Students at a very good level are a few years ahead of the other students.


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are a wide range of reading strategies suggested by reading programs and educators. Effective reading strategies may differ for second language learners, as opposed to native speakers. The National Reading Panel identified positive effects only for a subset, particularly summarizing, asking questions, answering questions, comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, and cooperative learning. The Panel also emphasized that a combination of strategies, as used in Reciprocal Teaching, can be effective. The use of effective comprehension strategies that provide specific instructions for developing and retaining comprehension skills, with intermittent feedback, has been found to improve reading comprehension across all ages, specifically those affected by mental disabilities.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Reading different types of texts requires the use of different reading strategies and approaches. Making reading an active, observable process can be very beneficial to struggling readers. A good reader interacts with the text in order to develop an understanding of the information before them. Some good reader strategies are predicting, connecting, inferring, summarizing, analyzing and critiquing. There are many resources and activities educators and instructors of reading can use to help with reading strategies in specific content areas and disciplines. Some examples are graphic organizers, talking to the text, anticipation guides, double entry journals, interactive reading and note taking guides, chunking, and summarizing.


title: Reading comprehension

text: The use of effective comprehension strategies is highly important when learning to improve reading comprehension. These strategies provide specific instructions for developing and retaining comprehension skills across all ages. Applying methods to attain an overt phonemic awareness with intermittent practice has been found to improve reading in early ages, specifically those affected by mental disabilities.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Research studies on reading and comprehension have shown that highly proficient readers utilize a number of different strategies to comprehend various types of texts, strategies that can also be used by less proficient readers in order to improve their comprehension.


title: Reading comprehension

text: There are informal and formal assessments to monitor an individual's comprehension ability and use of comprehension strategies. Informal assessments are generally through observation and the use of tools, like story boards, word sorts, and interactive writing. Many teachers use Formative assessments to determine if a student has mastered content of the lesson. Formative assessments can be verbal as in a Think-Pair-Share or Partner Share. Formative Assessments can also be Ticket out the door or digital summarizers. Formal assessments are district or state assessments that evaluates all students on important skills and concepts. Summative assessments are typically assessments given at the end of a unit to measure a student's learning.


title: Reading comprehension

text: A popular assessment undertaken in numerous primary schools around the world are running records. Running records are a helpful tool in regard to reading comprehension. The tool assists teachers in analysing specific patterns in student behaviours and planning appropriate instruction. By conducting running records teachers are given an overview of students reading abilities and learning over a period of time.


title: Reading comprehension

text: In order for teachers to conduct a running record properly, they must sit beside a student and make sure that the environment is as relaxed as possible so the student does not feel pressured or intimidated. It is best if the running record assessment is conducted during reading, so there are not distractions. Another alternative is asking an education assistant to conduct the running record for you in a separate room whilst you teach/supervise the class. Quietly observe the students reading and record during this time. There is a specific code for recording which most teachers understand. Once the student has finished reading ask them to retell the story as best they can. After the completion of this, ask them comprehensive questions listed to test them on their understanding of the book. At the end of the assessment add up their running record score and file the assessment sheet away. After the completion of the running record assessment, plan strategies that will improve the students' ability to read and understand the text.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Some texts, like in philosophy, literature or scientific research, may appear more difficult to read because of the prior knowledge they assume, the tradition from which they come, or the tone, such as criticizing or parodying. Philosopher Jacques Derrida, explained his opinion about complicated text: "In order to unfold what is implicit in so many discourses, one would have each time to make a pedagogical outlay that is just not reasonable to expect from every book. Here the responsibility has to be shared out, mediated; the reading has to do its work and the work has to make its reader." Other philosophers, however, believe that if you have something to say, you should be able to make the message readable to a wide audience.


title: Reading comprehension

text: Embedded hyperlinks in documents or Internet pages have been found to make different demands on the reader than traditional text. Authors, such as Nicholas Carr, and psychologists, such as Maryanne Wolf, contend that the internet may have a negative impact on attention and reading comprehension. Some studies report increased demands of reading hyperlinked text in terms of cognitive load, or the amount of information actively maintained in one's mind (also see working memory). One study showed that going from about 5 hyperlinks per page to about 11 per page reduced college students' understanding (assessed by multiple choice tests) of articles about alternative energy. This can be attributed to the decision-making process (deciding whether to click on it) required by each hyperlink, which may reduce comprehension of surrounding text.


title: Reading comprehension

text: On the other hand, other studies have shown that if a short summary of the link's content is provided when the mouse pointer hovers over it, then comprehension of the text is improved. "Navigation hints" about which links are most relevant improved comprehension. Finally, the background knowledge of the reader can partially determine the effect hyperlinks have on comprehension. In a study of reading comprehension with subjects who were familiar or unfamiliar with art history, texts which were hyperlinked to one another hierarchically were easier for novices to understand than texts which were hyperlinked semantically. In contrast, those already familiar with the topic understood the content equally well with both types of organization.


title: Reading comprehension

text: In interpreting these results, it may be useful to note that the studies mentioned were all performed in closed content environments, not on the internet. That is, the texts used only linked to a predetermined set of other texts which was offline. Furthermore, the participants were explicitly instructed to read on a certain topic in a limited amount of time. Reading text on the internet may not have these constraints.


title: Reading comprehension

text: The National Reading Panel noted that comprehension strategy instruction is difficult for many teachers as well as for students, particularly because they were not taught this way and because it is a demanding task. They suggested that professional development can increase teachers/students willingness to use reading strategies but admitted that much remains to be done in this area. The directed listening and thinking activity is a technique available to teachers to aid students in learning how to un-read and reading comprehension. It is also difficult for students that are new. There is often some debate when considering the relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension. There is evidence of a direct correlation that fluency and comprehension lead to better understanding of the written material, across all ages. The National Assessment of Educational Progress assessed U.S. student performance in reading at grade 12 from both public and private school population and found that only 37 percent of students had proficient skills. The majority, 72 percent of the students, were only at or above basic skills, and 28 percent of the students were below basic level.


title: Alex Edelman

text: Alex Edelman (born March 20, 1989) is an American stand-up comedian based in New York City. He is an internationally touring comic and found early success in the United Kingdom where he was named Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He has toured three shows since 2014: "Millennial" (2014–2015), "Everything Handed to You" (2015–2016), and "Just for Us" (2018–2020).


title: Alex Edelman

text: Edelman was born in Boston to Cheryl, a real estate lawyer, and Elazer R. Edelman, a biomedical engineer, cardiologist, and professor. He has two brothers, Austin, and Israeli Olympian Adam Edelman. He was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. He began performing stand-up at age 15. A baseball fan, he also worked for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers associations as a teenager.


title: Alex Edelman

text: Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. During his time there, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club Off the Wall Comedy. In 2008, he moved to New York City to study English at New York University. He graduated in 2012. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade. He first performed in the UK was in 2012 while studying abroad. He made his Australian debut in 2015.


title: Alex Edelman

text: His show "Millennial" won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the first American to do so since Arj Barker won in 1997. Edelman's 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show was titled "Everything Handed to You", and was the second most well-reviewed show at that year's festival. His 2018 show, Just For Us, was nominated for the Best Show award at the Edinburgh Fringe. He has appeared in the UK on television shows such as "The John Bishop Show", "," "Live from the BBC", Roast Battle, and contributed several anecdotes about his experiences as a comedian to the 2015 book "Off the Mic", by Deborah Frances-White and Marsha Shandur. He has done a BBC Radio 4 comedy series called "Alex Edelman's Peer Group".


title: Alex Edelman

text: As a comedy writer, he has contributed to the American television shows "The Great Indoors" (2016–2017) and "Teenage Bounty Hunters" (2020). Edelman was the head writer for Saturday Night Seder, a virtual celebrity Passover seder held during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also trained Rabbis to infuse humor into the High Holiday services as part of the Jewish communal response to the pandemic.


title: Alex Edelman

text: Edelman had an on-again, off-again relationship with Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan. He is in a relationship with stand-up comedian and actress Hannah Einbinder.


title: Ravish Kumar

text: Ravish Kumar (born 5 December 1974) is an Indian journalist, author and media personality. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show "Prime Time", "Hum Log", "Ravish Ki Report", and "Des Ki Baat".


title: Ravish Kumar

text: Kumar has twice been conferred with Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for the "Best Journalist of the Year" and became the fifth Indian journalist to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2019.


title: Ravish Kumar

text: Kumar was born on 5 December 1974 in Jitwarpur village near Areraj in East Champaran district of Bihar, to Baliram Pandey. He obtained his high school education from Loyola High School, Patna. Later he moved to Delhi for higher studies. He graduated from Deshbandhu College, affiliated with the University of Delhi. Eventually he enrolled in post-graduate diploma in Hindi Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.


title: Ravish Kumar

text: From 1994 to 2022 he was employed by NDTV India, eventually as Senior Director. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show "Prime Time", "Hum Log", "Ravish Ki Report" and "Des Ki Baat".


title: Ravish Kumar

text: On 30th November 2022, he resigned from NDTV a day after the channel’s founders and promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH).


title: Ravish Kumar

text: Kumar has been conferred various awards for his work in journalism including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (2019). He has been two times recipients of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2017, 2013) for the broadcast category in the Hindi language. The list continues with "Gauri Lankesh Award for Journalism," first Kuldip Nayar journalism award (2017), Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award for Hindi Journalism and Creative Literature (for 2010, awarded in 2014). He was included in the list of 100 most influential Indians (2016) by "The Indian Express" and also named "journalist of the year" by Mumbai Press Club.


title: Ravish Kumar

text: Kumar is married to Nayana Dasgupta who teaches History at the Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. He has two daughters.