page_title: Islam in Albania (1913–1944)
section_title: State interference, reforms and tensions
hierarchical_section_title: Islam in Albania (1913–1944) / Interwar period (1919–39) / State interference, reforms and tensions
caption_attribution_description: English: King Zog of Albania
context_page_description: Islam in Albania (1913–1944) was characterised by an increasing secularisation of Albanian society which had begun with Albanian Independence in 1912 carrying on influences from the Albanian National Awakening. During the interwar period, new local Muslim institutions such as the Muslim Community of Albania arose that severed ties with the Ottoman Caliphate and placed a focus on localising Islam in Albania. The Albanian state also played a significant role in that process through state interference and pressuring the uptake of reforms by those institutions and wider Muslim society. Measures that were adopted were banning the veil and others which were interpreted as modernising Albania. These events caused tensions within parts of Muslim society between conservatives and those who viewed themselves as progressives which caused discussions and reflections about the future role of Islam in Albania and Albanian identity. The interwar era also saw Sufi Islam expand in Albania with various orders gaining new adherents with the largest, the Bektashi Order moving its world headquarters to Albania.
context_section_description: In 1925, Ahmet Zog, an emerging politician from a prominent Muslim Albanian family became president of Albania and by 1929 installed himself as king. During the Zogist era, parliamentary representation was apportioned according to the size of the religious communities in Albania. The regime lasted until Zog's ousting during the Italian invasion of 1939 and within that time implemented a series of modernising measures meant to further curb Islam's influence in Albania and reverse the legacy of the Ottoman period. Amongst those were the abolition of Sharia law and replacement with Western law that made Muslims in Albania come under government control while the Quran was translated into Albanian and criticized for its inaccuracies. Increasing interference by the state of Islamic institutions led to Muslim clerics in 1926 to accuse the government of a propaganda campaign against the new madrasa in Shkodër, the new organisation of Jemaat (Islamic Community) and its finances. Clerics that went outside state oversight and delivered sermons in mosques without permission were threatened with action by authorities of offenders. As relations with the Muslim hierarchy and government officials became close, Islamic institutions were used by the state to implement social control like strengthening national unity, encouraging parents to send children to school and preventing diffusion of communist ideas. By 1929 with the centralisation and reform of Islamic institutions the state funded a sizable portion of the Islamic community's budget and madrasas were closed with one remaining in Tiranë called Medreseja e Naltë to train clerics in new modern ways.
  By the 1930s, intellectual trends regarding tradition and modernity had divided Muslim Albanians into three groups. The Elders (Të vjetër) favouring Islam; the Young (Të rinjtë) who objected to religion, in particular Islam and the Neo-Albanians (Neoshqiptarët) who emphasized Albanian culture, opposed religious sectarianism though not religion and favoured Bektashism due to its links with Albanian nationalism. Muslim Albanians resisted many of these changes on the restructuring of their Islamic committees, promoted da'wah or preaching of Islam to non-Muslim Albanians with risks of persecution, while their organisation underwent improvements. New mosques were also built such as the Great Mosque in Durrës while an Islamic Institute in Tiranë was accommodating up to 240 students in 1936. After prolonged debate amongst Albanian elites during the interwar era and increasing restrictions, the wearing of the veil in 1937 was banned in legislation by Zog. Due to some Muslim Albanian clergy having trained and served in former Middle Eastern Ottoman territories like Turkey, Egypt, some throughout the interwar period maintained and others opened up new educational and literary links with the wider Muslim world even afar with British India. Part of the reason was to build up a corpus of literature through translations on Islam in the Albanian language which had recently been codified and make the Muslim religion be more accessible to the people. During the interwar period, Catholics viewed the Albanian central government as a Muslim one, while the Orthodox felt that in political contexts they were dominated by Muslims.
caption: Prime minister, later king Ahmet Zog I (1895–1961)
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