Analysis by Pastor Fehmi Cacoli: The movement for “The abandoning of Islam”, what is this movement, and why it came out?

What is this “movement”?

What appeared in public last week in Decani I see not as a movement but initiative. This initiative can become movement and perhaps faster than some think. It's the initiative because they're at first. That's why there's also a lack of necessary articulations, organization, structure, extent, networking, leadership, objectives, etc. As an initiative, I appreciate it's citizen, democratic and fair of them. I see it's turned out to be a reaction, so it's a reaction after decades. The measure of this public reaction to me represents the weakest and most controversial point about the circumstances and specifics of our society. The initiative for <x0).>subsistance of Islamic religion” as a formulation is the core of reaction and I think it's in step failure. If the cause is to abandon Islam, which can be done but without advertising, without appeals due to nationwide institutions. The Decani initiative is not dealing with the Kurdish/Islamic doctrine, but with the protection of Albanian culture and identity. Albanian identity as the main axis of our existence has both Christianity and Islam, and these have already been rated historical processes.

Why the move?

We should not behave as if we have not seen and heard anything about what happened in Kosovo and Northern Macedonia in terms of radicalism and extremism of Islamist groups for three decades. It is enough to see, not just today, but 15 years ago, in a newspaper or portal or social network when an Islamist imam or activist writes or speaks something and there are harsh reactions from PRO Contra, while the wise are not part of these debates. The disfellowshipped language is burning higher and higher. This is probably the simplest public meter. Decani's initiative is saying Albanian national identity is going down. Remember that according to the survey held by K organisation IPRED in 2016 by Kosovar respondents 37% of them have initially felt Muslim religious identity, while Albanian national identity was the second plan. Therefore, historian Jusuf Bujowi claims that the national identity of Albanians with religious identities is being changed in Kosovo. The humiliations and attacks that have become the Albanian culture, national identity, the secular and democratic order of Kosovo by Albanian Islamists is over. The number of mosques, although some of them apparently were built in strategic sites with political agendas, and most of them were done without permission, should not pose a problem for Kosovo's citizen, as this is the question of the respective religious community and the state.

The Main List of Discouragement

The first, on the top, for my beliefs is the biggest attack on the Albanian nation is related to Albanian. How much less English today? Not just the Muslim brothers. The Albanian is also contracting in the family. The Albanian is not the dominant language of Kosovo's Islam against Christians. Therefore, Ademi Demachi “was probably responding after 600 years of Islam among Albanians to the main prayer and the ezani not to be heard Albanian”. The Albanian has boasted about the preservation of language for thousands of years and is now threatened by all. The second, the national identity circuit in Kosovo -- and much more evident in Macedonia -- has moved enormously, and the blame for this is not only Islamist activists but also post-modernist life. The third, and most dangerous, is trying to make Kosovo a healing state. Fourth, desecration of historical, national and religious figures such as Gjergj Kastriot, Peter Bogdani, Gjergj Fishta, Mother Teresa, Ibrahim Rugova, etc. The fifth, that the Ottoman Empire was a liberation, not an occupational one, and that in the course of this Turkish sultans would be deified and admired, even receiving homage and prayers at the grave. The sixth, the attack on Albanian autochthonia claiming that we have come after Turks come to the Balkans. The seventh, occupying spaces and public institutions for religious needs regardless of whether there are over 900 mosques in Kosovo, which about 700 of them have been built in the last 20 years. The eighth, the call for marriage among those related to blood. And ninth, the anti-compliance against almost anything that is Albanian stem culture (that is, names, weddings, songs, folklore, musical instruments, dances, legends, myths, literature, appearances, etc). The tenth, overlapping Muslim religious identity over Albanian national. The 11th, tracking and stigmatizing of those who think differently from Islamists. Twelve years old, humiliating and labelling blanco to Western civilization. The thirteenth, ten years ago, anti - American speeches against Christians, the Bible, were open to many mosques, and we do not even talk about material found on the Internet anywhere today. Santa even gets attacked!

Culture, Religion, Civilization, State orientation, and Hanefism

Islam came among Albanians, not as one of the doctors, but popular. The large-scale Islam of Albanians took place nearly 300 years after the First Battle of Kosovo, that is until the middle of the century. XVII Albanians were still about 80% Christians, such as the Orthodox majority of the Byzantine ritual. Islam among Albanians did not come as a culture but as a religion, so it became no part of the customary Arab law, nor the family's regulatory norm. While Christianity had another migration among Albanians, but despite that neither Christianity ever dominated the Albanian people culturally. I personally see Albanians at the largest pagan rate today. Consequently, Albanian with the mainstream religion today is Muslim, but with culture it is pagan. This is our reality. The hanefi Islamic law school is the most fortunate and fortunate way Albanians have as an Islamic majority in relation to the whole nation, the region and Europe. Hanefism as a philosopher accepts and cultivates coexistence with other religions, avoids self - extremism, and in proportion to others, does not exercise strict style toward believers for rituals, but emphasizes inner faith, allows free interpretations of religion, etc. The opposite of hanefism is Selafism. The state of Kosovo, all Albanians, all of the country's religious communities should be respected for its approach because it constitutes something as real as vital to our diversity. But neither is hanefism being respected and applied enough by the responsible and Adders themselves, even though there are many exhibits against Albanian Islam within the issue as well. Practically among Albanians, we are seeing seafism, not hanphism.

The essence of imam reaction

There's a huge explosion. Initially most of them say that this move is nothing and we should not deal with them because they don't deserve anyone to deal with them, even accusing the media of why they are handling this initiative. They forget that our media in the vast majority have opened the door, and now they have to become selective. There are some counterresponsions in the style that we're also patriots that so many hojas have given our lives for freedom, that we've done for education in the '90s, that this much money we've given for it and so on. Hoxha, when she went to war, went Albanian. When education was helped, it became human. Money and aid have become humanitarian. Why should religious affiliation of good work be emphasized whenever such ones feel uncomfortable? Does he have hodge blood that distinguishs from another youth? How many houses on the other hand had been issued by Kosovo citizens for schools that were majority, even risking everything? Are such works inferior to the fact that they are not stained with religious clothing? So I heard and I saw the reactions against Decani's initiative: you're communists, you're old, you're dead, you're cows, you're assholes, you're not even a bus, you're Islamophobic, you've never been Muslims or anything. But this was the enduring essence of them: Who will bring you to the ground, you poor man, for you have remained in the ground? Even the imam from Prizren was saying that they have no place to bury that in Prizren we have cemetery for Muslims, cemetery for Catholics and cemetery for Serbs. So he was saying there are no graveyards for Albanians! There is no cemetery for people with other beliefs or beliefs. This means that you may be born Albanian but that you die and bury Albanian people you can never! What kind of threat? By law all locations in Kosovo have civil, civic and non-religious status, but these have been adopted everywhere by one religious community or another. What a blackmail with the citizens of this country when the imams exercise power control that they will remain on the ground without being buried or that they have no place to be buried here as Albanians and that we call the land Dardan of Albania. This is dictatorship! This is slavery! The man in Kosovo must be guaranteed that when he dies he can be buried as he chooses. And you blackmail not only those who have said they are not Muslims but Albanians, but others who do not bow to you or are not Muslim trainees that you will not bury them! That's why we have so many businesses associated with the funeral. So much at funerals. Even some municipalities pay against the constitution to the religious community for burials. Did you have a license from heaven for burial? Our people must be freed from such dictatorial religious promises that condition their faithful on anything and anyone who exercises it, not just Muslims. Of all the reactions of the many imams I liked and appreciated Mitrovica's position of imam Fatmir Latifaj speaking calmly, peacefully, without offending without threatening. He said “each has a right to”, and overstressed the need for unity and national interdependence. But I have seen everyone else very troubled, recklessly speaking, with threats and insults, with labels and exceptions. Why do you make peace to these people so easily, or why do they not have peace? Or do they think that they are the signs of Allah and His Books and His Messengers? God doesn't need protection from us. Jesus Christ teaches us <x2 when you are reviled and cursed, and you bless them, and do not avenge them, but do good”

Who are the main culprits of our situation?

Greed for money is the primary blame and motive. Making money without work is a curse or a ban! In the first plan for any investment in Kosovo we Kosovo citizens have converted everything into what we financially benefit. This is the major moral problem of our corrupt society. We as Albanians have broken into a cash boat and the second break being against each other. We've broken up almost every port for money. We've broken into relationships. Money has become the greatest idol. Idol represents the individual god of each person. We are Gentiles, not religious! The second blame for the situation in Kosovo are politicians who have benefited from the funds and votes of our Muslim brothers. Since 1999, in no case have the State and its major institutions contributed any contribution to interreligious coexistence; rather, their actions have contributed to more national cohesion. High representative of the state goes to church, but not to the mosque. The verse speaks of how many times elections come, the appointed imams that secure the right votes. The third guilt is us all because we love the stranger more than we do our own. Since 1999, I have witnessed that KFOR, the OSCE, the US Embassy has done 1,000 times more for interreligious co-existence in Kosovo than state institutions, municipal and civil society. We are a secular state under the constitution and never at any moment have constitutional norms been respected by politics and state leaders. The secular word in the Constitution must be replaced by the secular word because the state has built <x0-secularity reports” religion and religious communities, not reports “laicity”. The latest guilty is a large measure of Kosovo media, which has contributed to this situation in numerous forms and motives. And at the end of the day, we are all talking a lot, and it has to wrinkle our mouth, for the Bible teaches us that the tongue turns on a mountain and can soften a beast.

Is the renouncement of Islam” promoting interreligious hatred, divisions and civic incompatibility?

As an initiative as far as I've been going through these days I don't see that they are targeting hate with religious grounds, that they don't endure civilism and divisions, but it's true that there were religious hate languages there in public appearance, and that's unacceptable and unnecessary. That person is enough to make a public apology for his statement when he mentioned that Islam is inhuman, but if you compare what has been said in this country by the great and small, and who has not been taken with them then even that individual just said that we should swallow that we have nothing to do, that we are wasting time.

Can Islam be abandoned?

Yes, of course, and not only Islam but every other religion, and this is happening east and west. This is civic right, it's a constitutional category, it's a legal arrangement, it's a universal human right to believe, not believe, and to change religion. Kosovo is a secular state with the constitution, but it protects religious communities, and according to the law of religious freedoms the religious communities of Kosovo and which are five with the current law (the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Islamic Community, the Protestant Church, the Jewish Community), and with the changes to the new fulfillments of this law, two new communities have been added (the Union of Tarik and Bektas). Each citizen of the Republic of Kosovo must understand that religious communities are protected by the state and are the heritage of the state. This is the constitutional and democratic order of the state of Kosovo. So that's worth, it's equality, it's social and national cohesion, and here it's numbers of who's older and who's younger should never matter to a democratic and national society like Albanians knowing that we are Christians and Muslims. In post-war Kosovo, it has occurred that at least 10,000 citizens have passed from Islam and have joined the Protestant community, but there has never been a problem worth mentioning. Do you say why? We don't need to work in this direction with tupans and cameras and lies, and I'm not saying that someone would hide his belief in Christ or keep two beliefs. Sometimes I have mentioned it publicly and I repeat it here, asking each Kosovar, please don't insult Islam, don't insult the Koran, don't insult the Muslims, don't insult the Muslims, don't insult the imams, don't despise the mosques, don't mock the prophet Muhammad on behalf of freedom of expression in Kosovo and between Albanians. That's the minimum of our collective behavior. Let anyone who does not like Islam or Christianity freely choose to abandon or believe another religion, for no one can make his religion as he desires. And each of us has the right to call on others in the faith. And I call on him in the name of the Father God, that every one may hear the gospel, and repent of his sins, and confess Christ unto his Savior and Lord, and be baptized, and join the Protestant church. This is my call, this is our church calling. This is peace, not war. Jesus came from heaven. He is the Prince of Peace, and the Bible says that He is God's seal, and no one can go to heaven except through him who came from heaven.

What is the main problem of Kosovo Muslims?

From what I've observed and analysed even though Muslims are majority over 90% in Kosovo they and their clergy behave mainly and live with a minority mind. This has remained an inheritance, I believe since the Yugoslav state, since Muslims have not been respected but misbehaved, even though they were the second population in that country. It is possible that the state of Kosovo has also inherited this report to the Muslim population of our country. The indifference of Kosovo Muslims is a tremendous problem that must be eliminated from their thinking as a reality, as a response, as not only practical but also eshkatological philosophy. How is the thinking of the minority examined by being a majority in itself? Muslim clergy and other activists, even on the smaller issue, mostly react alarmed. Even the last chance is to testify. Most create conformity to the minority, but the minority offers most of its thinking. The minority selects conservativeism and closure as it is known to be in defense, but most are open and consumed by great ideas, changes, diversity, and so on. I've followed over 30 emasculations that have reacted to the movement, and most of them use denigrative, cynical, irate to the other side, have no patience. And when you think that these must be teachers of religion, people of reason, people of patience, people who accept suffering and contempt, people who represent great crowds, then guess what their level really is? Why So Soon? Why are you so easily offended? Are they God's people or are they God's activists? Most never need to attack the minority! Most never need to complain about the minority! Most never need to mourn? Most do not need to be pushed to convince others that they are the most powerful, first and foremost. Has a mosque or Islamic humanitarian society ever been built by a church in Kosovo? Why and how, on the other hand, have three mosques in Kosovo been built with funds from Christian and Jewish organizations? Christian humanitarian organisations in Kosovo mainly help the Muslim community, but never does humanitarian Islamic organisations help Kosovo Christians. In the church that I lead over 80% of those who ask for help are Islamic faith. The little one has a anger, a grudge, it's a whim, but the big one's forgiving, accepting, justifying, restoring, and so on. However, minorities and individuals are foolish, it is not culture, not real, that they do not respect the majority especially in a democratic and secular-oriented state. If we say that we are democratic, then at any cost the majority should be respected either political or religious. The minority makes noises and is allowed to make noises that it is a minority! The minority must be protected more and tolerated by positive discrimination, and most do not envy it. In Albanian socialist families, it is the least favoured because it is the youngest, and older brothers understand that, and that creates peace again. Remember Jacob and his chosen Joseph here. Why do Kosovo Muslims behave as minorities then? You don't know? Unless they like to make noise at all because they cannot get out of the mind of the minority. Or they may like to seek more protection and privileges. In Albania, I note Muslims there have another mentality in their dealings with others and do not behave as minorities.

What should be done as New Kosovo?

Kosovo is now a state and not a Turkish province, nor is it Yugoslav, nor should Kosovo behave like a province. With these it means New Kosovo, something more than political, cultural and spiritual projections. Let the young one who conducts himself empower us, not to turn us into provincialism. The heart of Dardania as a culture and as a kingdom has exactly Kosovo. This is the first promise of our antiquity where New Kosovo should be moved. Based on political developments initiated by Dr. Rugova and so far reiterate that Kosovo as a state will be ranked west as part of Euro-Atlantic integrations. Integration is loving protection and funding, but not for value, and this is one of the inconsiderates of New Kosovo. Someone one day should make a national treaty with some points on how to really become New Kosovo on cultural and civilisation issues. This treaty should fix a good job once and for all. This should be regulated in the form of a pact or a major social and state interest agreement. Can this be fixed without a deal? No! Why? Because neither politics nor intellectuals is doing this, neither in culture nor in education nor in economics nor in law! Then there remains to be a pact, a covenant, a great national agreement. What would be some of the binding points? The first, regarding the state orientation based on the constitution to be respected and affirmed by all. Second in terms of respect and affirmation of all figures of national, cultural, state and religious importance (if the need is to create a new list). Third, national identity remains in first place and does not be endangered or humiliated. Fourth, Christians and Muslims are Albanian brothers and anyone who believes or does not believe is free, but no one despises any religious community or faith. Fifth, religious communities in reports with other nations ensure that they will not harm the state, culture, and other religious communities, rather with services linking bridges of friendship with nations and other states in Kosovo (The Islamic Union with Muslim countries, the Catholic Church with Catholic countries, Protestant churches with numerous Protestant countries, and in fact many, the Jewish Community with Israel). The sixth, the Serbian Orthodox Church, make a special covenant with all other Kosovo religious communities for several interests with emphasis on Kosovo's Orthodox heritage. If something is not taken for good then not far can be forgotten “Decani's move” what can happen!