Religion in Kosovo
is
separated from the state
.
[1]
The
Constitution
establishes
Kosovo
[a]
as a
secular state
that is neutral in matters of religious beliefs and where everyone is equal before the law and freedom to belief, conscience and religion is guaranteed.
Statistics
[
edit
]
According to the
U.S. Department of State
's 2007
International Religious Freedom Report
, 'the last credible
census
was taken in the 1980s', and the religious demographics had to be estimated.
[2]
The Report found that
Islam
was the predominant faith in Kosovo, 'professed by most of the majority
ethnic Albanian population
, the
Bosniak
,
Gorani
, and
Turkish
communities, and some of the
Roma
/
Ashkali/Egyptian
community'. About 100,000?120,000 people were
Serbs
, and these were largely
Serbian Orthodox
. Approximately 3.4% of ethnic Albanians were
Catholics
, whereas
Protestants
comprised a minority of less than 1%, there were only two known families of
Jewish
origin and no reliable data for
atheists
.
[2]
It is also likely that there are some
Orthodox Albanians
in Kosovo. However, with current tension between Kosovars and Serbs, they may feel as if they do not want to identify as Eastern Orthodox, as they may be thought of as ‘Serbs’ because of their Eastern Orthodox status. Therefore, they are not represented in the census. Furthermore, the report claimed that religion was 'not a significant factor in public life. Religious rhetoric was largely absent from public discourse in Muslim communities, mosque attendance was low, and public displays of conservative
Islamic dress
and culture were minimal.'
[2]
According to
Pew Research Center
's 2015 study, in 2010 Kosovo had 97.5% Muslims and 2.1%
Christians
; all other religious groups and the
unaffiliated
each had less than 1%.
[3]
Religion in Kosovo (European Social Survey 2012)
[4]
None (0.3%)
Other religion (0.1%)
According to the European Social Survey in 2012, the population of Kosovo was 97.5% Muslim, 0.1% Catholic, 2.1% Eastern Orthodox and 0.3% irreligious.
[4]
The 2011 Kosovo population census was largely boycotted by the
Kosovo Serbs
(who predominantly identify as
Serbian Orthodox
Christians), especially in
North Kosovo
,
[5]
leaving the Serb population underrepresented.
[6]
Other religious communities, including the Tarikats and Protestants, also contest the census data. Protestant leaders and those without a religious affiliation state some members of their communities were classified incorrectly as Muslims by census takers.
[7]
The results of the 2011 census gave the following religious affiliations for the population included in the census:
[8]
Almost all Muslims in Kosovo are
Sunni Muslims
. The majority of Roma Muslims belong to
Sufi brotherhoods
, a sizeable number of practising Albanian Muslims also.
[9]
The Serb population is largely
Serbian Orthodox
, and primarily concentrated in
North Kosovo
, though a few enclaves exist elsewhere. The
Catholic
Albanian communities are mostly concentrated in
Gjakova
,
Prizren
,
Klina
and a few villages near
Peja
and
Vitina
(see
laramans
). Slavic-speaking Catholics usually call themselves
Janjevci
or Kosovan Croats. Slavic-speaking Muslims in the south of Kosovo are known as the
Gorani people
.
History
[
edit
]
Christianity
[
edit
]
Christianity probably reached Kosovo in the 5th century as the
Roman Empire
gradually split into a
Greek East and Latin West
. Kosovo became part the former, known as the
Byzantine Empire
, and thus fell into the sphere of the
Eastern Orthodox Church
based in
Constantinople
.
[10]
During the
High Middle Ages
, as Byzantine rule in Kosovo gave way to the
Serbian Empire
in the early 13th century, there was an Orthodox Christian majority, but also a Catholic minority consisting of the
Italo-Dalmatian
merchant class from
Ragusa
,
German
immigrants from
Hungary
and
Transylvania
, and probably all of the native
Albanian population
.
[10]
Serbian Orthodoxy
[
edit
]
The presence of Serbian Orthodox bishops in
Lipjan
and
Prizren
was first recorded in the 10th century.
[11]
In 1219, the Serbian Orthodox Church split from the Greek Orthodox Church, and Greek bishops were expelled from Kosovo.
[11]
The See of the Serbian Orthodox Church was moved from
?i?a
in present-day
Serbia
to
Peja
in present-day Kosovo in 1252, thus making it the religious and cultural centre of Serbian Orthodoxy. In 1346, the
archbishop of Peja
assumed the title of
patriarch
.
[11]
Catholicism and crypto-Catholics
[
edit
]
Kosovo was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire
along with the other
remnants of the Serbian Empire
in the period following the
Battle of Kosovo
(1389). Although the Ottomans did not force the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian population to convert to Islam, there was strong social pressure (such as not having to pay the
jizya
) as well as political expediency to do so, which ethnic Albanians did in far greater numbers (including the entire nobility) than Serbs, Greeks and others in the region.
[12]
Many Catholic Albanians converted to Islam in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite attempts by Catholic clergy to stop them. During the
Concilium Albanicum
, a meeting of Albanian bishops in 1703, a strict condemnation of conversion ? especially for opportunistic reasons such as jizya evasion ? was promulgated. Whilst many of these converts stayed crypto-Catholics to a certain extent, often helped by pragmatic lower clerics, the higher Catholic clergy ordered them to be denied
the sacraments
for their heresy.
[13]
Efforts to convert the
Laraman community
of
Letnica
back to
Catholicism
began in 1837, but the effort was violently suppressed ? the local Ottoman governor put laramans in jail.
After the Ottoman Empire abolished the death penalty for apostasy from Islam by the
Edict of Toleration 1844
, several groups of crypto-Catholics in
Prizren
,
Peja
and
Gjakova
were recognised as Catholics by the Ottoman Grand Vizier in 1845. When the Laramans of Letnica asked the district governor and judge in
Gjilan
to recognise them as Catholics, they were refused however, and subsequently imprisoned, and then deported to
Anatolia
,
from where they returned in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention.
In 1856, a further
Tanzimat
reform
improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported.
The greater part of converts of Laramans, almost exclusively new-borns, took place between 1872 and 1924.
Protestantism
[
edit
]
Islam
[
edit
]
After victory at the
Battle of Kosovo
(1389), the
Ottoman Empire
imposed Islamic rule on the region. Conversion was not obligatory, but had several financial, social and political benefits. Until the sixteenth century the degree of Islamisation in Kosovo was minimal, and largely confined to urban centres. The pace of conversions to Islam only increased significantly in the second half of the sixteenth century, possibly because converts thus became exempt from the
cizje
, a tax levied only on non-Muslims.
[19]
By 1634, the majority of
Kosovo Albanians
had converted to Islam, although a minority remained Catholic.
[20]
Besides the ethnic Albanians, and the ruling Turks who settled in Kosovo, the
Roma
and some part of the Slavic-speaking population (later called the
Bosniaks
and/or
Gorani
, to distinguish them from the Orthodox Serbs) also became Muslims, by far most of them
Sunni
, many of which belong to Sufi brotherhoods, although small a minority of
Shia Muslims
[
dubious
–
discuss
]
formed in the countryside. By the end of the 17th century, the Islamic population started to outnumber the Christians.
[20]
Freedom of religion
[
edit
]
In 2023, the country was scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom.
[21]
See also
[
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]
References
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