Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the ceremony celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary, organized by the Albanian Muslim Community:
Dear Chairman of the Muslim Community, my friend, Haxhi Skënder Bruçaj!
In order to be here among you and be part of the celebration of this day, which many of your scholars consider as the most remarkable day of the calendar of humankind, I must tell you that I had to break the resistance of the Prime Ministry’s Protocol.
It is surprising how, contrary to the good habits and the humble wisdom of the customs of our territories, where virtue and the practice of brotherhood have been cultivated for centuries as a pomade, not only among individuals of different religions but also among the religious institutions themselves as examples of this brotherhood, public institutions and the state itself do somehow fear the brotherhood and the visionary cooperation with the community of believers and representatives of religious communities.
When I think about this invisible, but not always invisible, fruitless and meaningless division in a society like ours prone to divisions, but also imbued with the fire of the desire to approach the universal, I recall some verses of a mystic Albanian poet, imbued with the fruits of the orchard of Christianity in his childhood and later, with the poetic power of Islam in the youth of all passions.
I would like to bring here, a little bit, Yahya Bey Dukagjin-Zadeja, an Albanian prince and a mystic in the Islamic world, who wrote at the turn of the spooky 16th and 17th centuries, a completely original “Yusuf and Züleyha” and yet in accordance with the scriptures. The prophetic characteristics of “Kitab-ı Usul” (The Book of Precepts), as much as those of “Şah ü Geda” (The King and the Beggar), approach Yahya Bey to his leading figure, the Prophet Muhammad and make him a strong signal to our time. And here’s what he says:
“I have not translated the words of another,
I have not mixed the words of strangers in my mouth.
Neither imagination, nor good or bad things,
But this word is mine, it is my sorrow.”
And it is really sad to think that in modern times, when information of any kind, like vector propaganda and mental poisoning, prevails and is so easily used and misused by everyone, the elderly and the young, and especially by the young, the freedom of thought and genuine faith are suffocated and trampled by some sort of improper alliance of ignorance, profitability and terror.
To Prophet Muhammad, the pride of humanity as much as any of the few colossi, founders of universal civilizations, belongs the honour, appreciation and respect of all people of good will, regardless of their religious beliefs, who share with his followers, the followers of one of the major world religions, the same planet, the same human dignity, the same responsibility towards human society, the human family, the family of the people and of the common future of every person.
I like to quote the philosopher and the Catholic Saint Augustine, an inhabitant of the territories of North Africa, where Islam was going to be easily seeded in the wings of the winds of the desert and of the mildness of the climate and population, whenever I remember his simple but very significant phrase: “We love and appreciate what we know.”
But who does really know Islam today? Who can talk today with a just distance, the necessary tranquillity and the sovereign knowledge about the Islamic wisdom? The greatness of the verses by Yahya Dukagjin-Zade lies in the sublimation of his profound faith, in the inner spiritual struggle, in the everlasting endeavour of the inner restlessness of a every person, whose selflessness, just like in every monotheistic religion, consists above all in coming to terms by taking into account the demanding eye of the Lord on his restless self.
To give yourself to the world peace, by legitimizing and sanctifying this way the name of Islam – Salaam and Peace like the 99 glorious names of God, it is the superior effort that, according to the scholar Mohammed Arkoun characterizes the true follower of the prophet’s message.
“O believers,” – it is written in the Quran – “immerse yourselves completely in Is-Salam”, in the peace of God, and not in the peace of the league, in the chaos of ignorance, in the agreement with the darkness.
What can oppose today, who can stand against the agreement of darkness, the alliance of ignorance with crime, the ghastly agreement between terror and the absurd bloodshed of innocents?
The youth once used to be the unstoppable locomotive of emancipation and human progress, whether it was related to faith or not. Youth was a necessary barrier against unbridled obscurantisms, a guarantor of the inalienable and irrevocable right to education, civilization, equality and brotherhood.
Today, the drowsiness caused by ignorance, in front of the countless means to convey information, and the abuse, often malicious, of these means due to ignorance, the abandonment by impregnated societies of the individual who can increasingly barely find his roots, the bewitchment, under the absence of entities that can actually give a sense of belonging, in front of the brute and monstrous force of an alluring terrorism for the darkness of ignorance and despair, are pushing the youth towards an increasingly unknown path where, according to the words of Shakespeare in “King Lear”, ‘Tis the times’ plague, when madmen lead the blind.”
Globalization and relativism, which come more from a welfare inherited from others than from hard work, threaten incessantly the fundamental notions of the values that we often see like empty decoration boxes in our societies, in which the wandering needy cannot find what can feed not his gut, but his soul, not his mouth, his but reason, not his interest, but his intelligence.
What do a graveyard of the martyrs, a necropolis of fighters, a museum of history tell today to a young person? What do the symbol of his or her religion, very little known indeed, and the structure of similar beliefs, their symbols, architecture, art, aesthetics and vice versa, tell a young Muslim, and what do the symbols, the architecture, art and aesthetics of Islam tell the young people of other religions? What do Baghdad, the Umayyad dynasty, Isfahan, Firdawsi, the Hashemite dynasty, or Palmira, Babylon, Petra, the divan literature, the Ahdnames of Muslim rulers mean to our children?
At most, future generations risk to walk over these assets, seeing them as a museum of rag, and if they don’t have – God forbid! – through culture the proper sensitivity, they will always select increasingly blindly this or that figure, this or that trend, and their opinions will be based on superficial political, ideological or media perceptions.
Our societies, transformed in supermarkets, will have – God forbid! – as a sole response the indifference and manipulation, and so it will be proved – God forbid! – year after year, if nothing changes, the century-long deaf plea that the prominent writer of the Albanian Islam, Suzi Çelebi of Prizren, addresses to the believer in the sixteenth century Fetih-Nam:
“Beware, do not cross your borders,
For the fate may make a fool of you in front of the world;
Mind your steps and let not them be too long,
For they may encounter thousands of obstacles and have you stumble;
Do not turn your chest to the world as a shield,
For you will become the target of celestial arrows.”
Cults are important cursors for reading the national and universal novel. A few know in Albania, and in my view this is a national disaster, that the Islamic cult, with its tolerant and civilized approach, has promoted in our country education and culture. It took centuries before researchers Hasan Kaleshi and Neha Krasniqi, whose name sounds like Arabic in our schools, could show the Albanian contributions to the Islamic sciences, which are also contributions to the world culture and a heritage of mankind.
Therefore, dear friends, without having the education and an early drive to know and consider what surrounds us, it is not surprising that for the sake of a seductive demagogy, he who is new at the vicissitudes of life will hole up in mosques and underground churches, or in imaginary temples, and for his worst disgrace but also of the society’s in which he lives, he will experience such a contempt and nightmares that will push him to commit a crime against the miracles of Islamic art, the miracles of art and religious culture in general, against the ancient genesis that links Islam and other monotheistic religions.
In its misery, the current modern state as a whole has been entrusted from the providence state with a unique mission that the state in Albania, in Europe, in every country that wants to live in peace, have to comply with at any cost in this time when we are facing an hideous, ghastly pact of terror with the outrage of faith through the cultivation of ignorance.
The states should breed anywhere and at any time brotherhood and a sense of belonging of everyone in the shared house of beliefs, through the cultivation of knowledge about our own religion and the religion of others, and be aware that our religion does not prevail over the religions of others, but is part of a crown without which mankind would look today completely naked and helpless in the face of challenges.
Whether yesterday, today or tomorrow, the school, the place where the feeling and the longing of belonging, of the endeavour and the initiatives of the individual with others are first forged, and the place where everyone start their journey on the path of knowledge and wisdom, where great or small discoveries are promoted, should be, whether we want it or not, the main stage of the fighting for the light, of the battle for civilization, of the cultivation of brotherhood among our children, whether they are Muslims, Christians or of any other religion.
I firmly believe that the time has come for the Albanian state to take the courage and have schools open their doors to the knowledge of the religious beliefs, to open their doors and give every child the opportunity to arm themselves with the instruments of knowledge, in order to not become in the future a victim of the tempting propaganda of those who have no connection with the prophet Muhammad, who have no connection with the prophets who paved the path to today’s civilizations, and of those who commit crimes in the name of Islam, and these crimes are intended to be punished, because they have been punished in the very holy books.
I believe that today, everyone should feel a great responsibility for the fact that young people, teenagers in Tirana or in Paris, in Pristina or in London, in Europe or in America, have not armed themselves with the instruments of knowledge to face the demagogues, the charlatans, the rogues who seek to derive benefits by causing bloodshed among mankind or by fooling it.
Therefore, I believe that on this land of ignorance the beneficiaries of which are whether violent extremists or the extremists in a suit who speak to Europe and America about the danger coming from Muslims, every state who cherishes the latter and the future of their own children should pave the way to the possibility for every child to be fed also with the culture of religions. A major force lies in the cultures of religions not only for believers, but also for non-believers, so that they can arm themselves by means of the many miracles that the culture of religions has brought to culture, art, to the philosophical and aesthetic though of humanity, and be victorious against all forms of violent extremism or of the extremism propagated by those in a suit.
I greet the Albanian Muslim Community, and as a Prime Minister of this country I am proud of it. This community has played in every moment an emancipating and peace-making role for our nation. Today this community fully supports our new project to transform public schools in a space where students can get to know not only sciences, but also religion.
This project does not consist in the violation of the secularity of our schools, but rather in strengthening the foundations of the secular culture, which will not have the power to confront the various forms of violent extremism or of the extremism in a suit, if it fails to provide the children of all religions the instruments to recognize religions as a generator of civilizations and of philosophical and social progress, and sharpen their vigilance so that they will not succumb to the big temptations that seduce and transform into hapless victims of the Jihadist movement or political extremism, young men and women who lack the inner spiritual force, precisely because they lack the instruments to deal with the hardships of life.
We will start with a number of schools in urban and rural areas, in addition to cooperating with other international institutions, both in the West and in the East. We have requested the assistance of globally renowned experts of culture of civilizations, and will be experimenting for the first time, thanks to the texts prepared in complete harmony between these institutions, starting with the Observatory of Secularity in Paris and our religious communities in Albania. For the first time, students will be encouraged by specifically trained teachers, both in the country and abroad, to adopt the elements of the speech, the premise of the dialogue, the first steps to talk dispassionately, without hard feelings, without prejudice, and develop a sense of belonging, precisely thanks to religious differences, rather than to their detriment.
We have always said and we will keep repeating that we are fortunate because in Albania religious differences are an asset, not a problem. But we must not forget that just as every person, every nation forges its own destiny. It is our duty to protect and promote what we have inherited from our ancestors, so that the young generations, our children, will not take it for granted, but will inherit it as the most precious asset, being aware of its inestimable value, and preserve it as the most precious thing.
Taking the soldiers to the battlefront, mobilizing the army and military coalitions, no matter how strong they are, is not enough to combat violent extremism because this is not a battle that can be won simply and only with guns. This is a war that can be won with the minds and hearts of the young people around the globe.
This noble mission rests with teaching and education, with the nurturing approach to peace, in order to resist the spirit of confrontation and to renew generation after generation the human brotherhood without which we are all doomed to remain lost wanderers. And in this renewed brotherhood, which is always a cradle of peace and understanding, emancipation and awareness, Albanians, but not only, will be proud of it as the bud of the renewed humanity, the Bethlehem and the Mecca of Saudi Arabia where, to close with a quotation by the great Themistokli Gërmenji, “the Muhammad of the Muslims and the Isa of Christianity are reborn and praised.”
Many thanks!
