Religion, the danger of fanaticism
“Someone today will ask about harmony between beliefs!”
FATOS BAKXHAKU
TIRANA — “If you are asking us how we see the coexistence of these two churches or these two faiths that live side by side and even with a shared wall, then that is perhaps the key question, the question to which first and foremost history itself would answer. It knows this better. It places before us that apparently troubling reality, that Albanian Christians and Muslims have always lived well together.” These words, which seem to have been the essential testimony of a man of faith, were spoken last Friday by Monsignor Rrok Mirdita, at the first ecumenical meeting organized in our country by the Albanian Helsinki Committee.
He thus placed at the center of attention not only a major problem for the entire Balkan region, but perhaps for all Europe as well, a problem that now seems to need to be articulated as a positive example from our country. In very few words he implied how necessary it is not to fear or hide the problems that exist, but to speak about them, so that a harmony of beliefs may be found that will prevent any further fanaticism.
Albania, a small country but one with extraordinary experience in interfaith relations, is thus presented as a model that can speak not only about itself but also more broadly. At the meeting held in Tirana, representatives of different faiths, scholars, clerics and public figures were brought face to face.
Much of what was said there concerned traditional Albanian tolerance, coexistence, differences that should not turn into divisions, the need to avoid extremism, and the responsibility of religious institutions in this direction.
In a region where ethnic and religious tensions have taken dramatic forms, this message carries special weight. It becomes even more important because it comes from a country that for decades banned religion and violently excluded it from public life, while today it is trying to rebuild religious freedom and a culture of dialogue.
The Tirana meeting thus gave practical meaning to the idea that interfaith harmony is not a slogan, but ongoing civic and spiritual work.
[Note: parts of the text in the central columns are partly illegible in the image; the transcription above reflects the visible text and the readable meaning of the article.]
View of the meeting in Tirana