Stricter forms of Islam are being promoted in Albania by young imams who were trained in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the head of the South-East Europe department of Aid to Church in Need reports.
According to this international Catholic charity, this creates some tensions with Christians as well as with other Muslims (Catholic News Agency, July 24). In addition to the training of imams propagating forms of Islam different from the local, customary ones, both countries encourage the building of Islamic schools as well.
Up to now, incidents reported have been minor, but there are concerns for the future. Since the 1990s, concerns have been expressed in various countries of the Balkans about foreign Islamic influences and the impact they have on the local Islamic culture, including the replacement of traditional Islamic architecture with models from other parts of the Muslim world.
(Catholic News Agency, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)