TIRANA: The Muslim cleric preparing to lead what will become, if everything goes as planned, the world’s smallest state has laid-back plans for the tiny new country. His hoped-for Muslim state in Tirana, Albania’s capital, will be a Vatican-style sovereign enclave controlling territory about the size of five New York City blocks, and it will allow alcohol, let women wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules.”God does not forbid anything; that is why he gave us minds,” said the cleric, Edmond Brahimaj, known to followers as Baba Mondi, explaining how he intends to rule over a 27-acre patch of land that Albania wants to turn into a sovereign state with its own administration, passports and borders.
Albanian PM Edi Rama said he will announce plans for the entity, to be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order, in the near future. “All decisions will be made with love and kindness,” said Baba Mondi, 65, a former Albanian army officer who is revered by millions around the world by his official title, His Holiness Haji Dede Baba. He is the paramount leader of the Bektashi, a Shia Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkiye but now based in Albania.
PM Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself. “We should take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance and which we should never take for granted,” he said. An avowedly moderate Islamist microstate, the prime minister said, would send a message: “Do not let the stigma of Muslims define who Muslims are.”
The territory of the proposed new Islamist state is a compound in a low-rent residential district of eastern Tirana. It is just a quarter of the size of Vatican City, currently the world’s smallest country, governed by the pope, an absolute monarch.
Baba Mondi said “size doesn’t matter,” adding, “I don’t need to be a dictator”, though he conceded that the only significant constraint on his authority will be God. The Bektashi domain features a domed meeting and prayer hall, a museum showcasing the order’s history, a clinic, an archive and the administrative offices of a cheery Baba Mondi. Extremists who set off bombs and use violence to spread their version of the faith, he said, “are just cowboys”.
Viewed as heretics by many conservative Shia and Sunnis and subjected to centuries of persecution in Muslim lands, the Bektashis have been a force in Albania and neighbours such as Kosovo and Macedonia.
Albanian PM Edi Rama said he will announce plans for the entity, to be called the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order, in the near future. “All decisions will be made with love and kindness,” said Baba Mondi, 65, a former Albanian army officer who is revered by millions around the world by his official title, His Holiness Haji Dede Baba. He is the paramount leader of the Bektashi, a Shia Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkiye but now based in Albania.
PM Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself. “We should take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance and which we should never take for granted,” he said. An avowedly moderate Islamist microstate, the prime minister said, would send a message: “Do not let the stigma of Muslims define who Muslims are.”
The territory of the proposed new Islamist state is a compound in a low-rent residential district of eastern Tirana. It is just a quarter of the size of Vatican City, currently the world’s smallest country, governed by the pope, an absolute monarch.
Baba Mondi said “size doesn’t matter,” adding, “I don’t need to be a dictator”, though he conceded that the only significant constraint on his authority will be God. The Bektashi domain features a domed meeting and prayer hall, a museum showcasing the order’s history, a clinic, an archive and the administrative offices of a cheery Baba Mondi. Extremists who set off bombs and use violence to spread their version of the faith, he said, “are just cowboys”.
Viewed as heretics by many conservative Shia and Sunnis and subjected to centuries of persecution in Muslim lands, the Bektashis have been a force in Albania and neighbours such as Kosovo and Macedonia.