The meeting between the Pope and Albanian Sufi spiritual leader Baba Edmond Brahimaj sends out a clear message against the fundamentalist impulses that became the legacy of the war in Bosnia Herzegovina
Today the Pope held an audience with the leader of a religious Sufi confraternity with which the Holy See has had a friendly relationship for some time. The leader hails from Albania, a country Francis expressly referred to as an example of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, during his visit there in September 2014. These are the key aspects that explain the Pope’s meeting with Baba Edmond Brahimaj - the Bektashi spiritual leader who represents the Balkan face of the Islamic mystical movement – which took place this morning in the Paul VI Hall study, before the General Audience.
The meeting between the two came as no surprise. The Bektashi leader had already attended interreligious meetings in Assisi as well as Mother Teresa’s beatification ceremony. Nevertheless, it was significant taking into account the general situation in the Muslim world today. That is because Sufi movements are among the groups that face the greatest opposition from radical Islam, especially movements like the Bektashi one, whose doctrine has important links with Shiite Islam.
It is no coincidence then that ISIS – both in Syria and Libya – razed Sufi places of worship to the ground, as these are considered to be “places of apostasy”, just like churches. What is driving the wedge between the two is not just the mysticism aspect and the brotherhood doctrines but also certain very visible differences, the Bektashi places of worship, for instance, which do not have minarets and muezzins; also, their women do not wear headscarves and they attend prayers in the same space as the men. All these aspects are centuries-old but in today’s East which is becoming increasingly allergic to difference, said aspects are considered a scandal by those who wish to impose Wahhabism as the only – extremely rigid – interpretation of Islam.
This is not such a new thing, however. The Bektashi movement came into being in the 13th century, during the reign of the Ottoman Empire but their barycentre moved from Turkey to Tirana in 1925. After the Armenians and Assyrians, they too, along with the Kurds, ended up in Ataturk’s crosshairs, as part of the efforts of the Young Turks to standardise the empire. This is because they were seen as not being orthodox enough compared to Sunni Islam.
The Bektashi movement in Albania survived despite the very tough circumstances imposed on them, also under Enver Hoxha’s regime. In Albania, they are generally still on friendly terms with Sufi imams. But this is not the case in some neighbouring countries, where the Wahhabism imported by the Mujahideen who went to fight in former Yugoslavia, has already started targeting them. The most startling case was the occupation of the Harabati sanctuary, in the Macedonian city of Tetovo – one of their most important traditional places of worship - in 2002. Local Sunni radicals occupied it and transformed it into a mosque. The Bektashi community protested, but to no avail. In addition to this, scholars of Sufi confraternities often group the Bektashis together with Alevis, a Turkish minority that is quite significant in terms of numbers but also one of the groups that Turkish president Erdo?an has been dangerously targeting in recent years.
“The Pope set protocol aside and approached me like brother to brother, showing great cordiality,” Baba Edmond Brahimaj told Vatican Radio, in a statement about today’s meeting. He sent out a fraternal message; we stressed the importance of dialogue, fraternal understanding and the importance of religious communities in today’s society. The Pope,” he went on to say, “mentioned the meeting he had with all of Albania’s religious communities, during which he witnessed as strong willingness for understanding and a fraternal, sincere and frank dialogue to show all faithful the path of love, understanding and peace that the Lord left us. Because there are no alternatives to a life of peace and encounter.” In the Balkan context – a real European frontier in the fight against the Caliphate – this message is of unique importance.
