Replies

Hey, Pythag, not sure of the relevance of your post to the fact that Albania is a solid ally of ours in Afghanistan & Iraq, but it appears you are trying to make some point about the Islamic character of Albania. So let's take a look at what your link actually says. Here are some excerpts:

"The idea of building an Islamic university in the country was first raised by Prime Minister Fatos Nano..." Fatos Nano, the Prime Minister, is Orthodox Christian. He joins another Christian--President Alfred Moisiu, a Catholic--as the two most important leaders in Albania.

Sheikdom Chairman Selim Muca has stressed to Nano the importance of establishing an Islamic university in the country so that young Albanian Muslims would not have to travel abroad and be influenced by other dogmas and ideologies. The Albanians do not want their Muslims to be radicalized.

Observers believe that the government has turned crimson after the opening of the Catholic University , while Muslims, who make up the majority (around 75 percent) of the 3.5 million population, do not have their own university. The Catholics already have a university and Orthodox Christian schools are common in south Albania.

The number of churches in the country also outnumbers that of mosques, which are estimated roughly at 270 out of 1667 established before the Communist era.

So let's recap: more churches than mosques, Christian prime minister and president, Catholic university, Orthodox schools, and Albanian Muslims upset that their children studying in overseas mosques are getting radical ideas, so they build their own university.

And Albanian soldiers are fighting alongside us in Iraq & Afghanistan, we are using Albanian training areas & ranges for our Marines, and they vote the American position in every international forum. Your attachment reinforces the basic post that Albania, while small, is one of the best allies we have.

Albanian political masters & clan leaders are sometimes united when big foreign players (e.g. Ottomans, Nazis, the U.S. under Clinton) support a pan-Albanian expansionist agenda. However, the U.S. under Bush has shown no appetite to support Albanian irredentism despite sincere acts of solidarity by some individual Albanians and despite calculated gestures of politicians, (such as sending troops to Iraq, which is of little use to the U.S. anyway). That's why Albanian lobbyists ended their love affair with Republican politicians (i.e. some second rate ones such as Dole & McCain) and played almost all their cards on Kerry (+ Dick Holbrooke, Wesley Clark & the Soros empire) ... and lost!

Political Islam, having shown clear intentions to reestablish itself in the Balkans, naturally sees fertile ground in desparately poor and predominantly Muslim Albania. Counting on a continuing petrodollar bonanza, organized Islam can reasonably hope to outspend Christian, secular, American or pro-western institutions in northern Albania & Kosovo. The "Islamic University", as other Islamic institutions, will be funded by middle eastern sources (as the article hints) and will thus obviously be prone to islamic radicalism.

The reasons that Nano and other Christians support the Islamic University are complex and related to the delicate and potentially explosive balance between Toscs - Gheqs and Christians - Muslims. Whatever the reasons, it is a clear indication of the ascendancy of Islam in Albania. Pictures of American flags next to Albanian pretty traditional dresses will do nothing to change the reality of a predominantly Muslim, inherently unstable and geopolitically opportunistic and unreliable Albania.