Muslim Albanians?

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   For some reason, it is a widely accepted "fact" that Albanians are Muslims. I live in Italy, and have several Albanian friends, and have asked them about religion in their country.

They told me that if anything the country is primarily atheistic or agnostic -by an overhwelming majority, and that beyond that are the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, followed by the Muslims. Yet, Kosovars are described as "Muslims", and as are Albanians. Moreover, Albania is said to be 70% Muslim according to the CIA World Factbook.

I asked my friends why this was. They said that if we take a look at any survey of Albanian religion, we'd see that in the margin it says the survey is using information from before 1939! Albania was only liberated from Ottoman rule in 1918, when everyone was considered to be Muslim, or else they would face heavy taxation. Certainly, no poll was conducted in the 1920s, when Albania was in disorder, and in the 1930s the Italians used statistics from the Ottomans.

So why are Albanians often identified with Islam, and why don't they conduct another poll?

Albania is surrounded by Serbian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox countries. Any "Christian" Albanians would most likely be Orthodox. If they are Orthodox, then the Greeks and Serbs claim that they are then Greeks or Serbs -something that is as logical as saying that every Roman Catholic is Roman. The Albanian Orthodox church often relies on the Greek Orthodox, which has been used by Greek nationalists to say that Albanians are Orthodox, and by association Greek -ridiculous. Catholicism is only starting to be spread in the country, so the only choice for many Albanians is Islam -it is not a religious issue, but a nationalistic one, so as to differentiate between Albanians and their neighbors.

But why don't Albanians take another poll? There are about 500,000-750,000 Albanians in Greece, many of whom have changed their names from Albanian names to Greek names to acquire citizenship. They "count" as Greeks. If another poll were to be taken, the families of these people would be counted as "Greeks" in Albania -though they are not, and the Greek minority of some 50,000 would suddenly figure as roughly a third of the country. And that's really the only thing Greece needs to wrongfully annex Southern Albania.

I thought I might share this, as I find it fascinating.