Kosovo, the Muslim-majority Balkan nation, is seeing a growing trend of Muslims converting to Catholicism, reports Sonia Sarkar in Religion Unplugged (March 17). She writes that a group called the Decanski Movement Association has been promoting the voluntary exit from Islam, while also seeking to preserve Albanian national identity and values under the motto: “We are no longer Muslims.” Catholicism is viewed as the original faith of the majority Albanians living in Kosovo by representatives of this movement, who argue that, emotionally, these Kosovar Albanians have always connected with Catholicism, even if they remained in hiding as “crypto-Catholics.” In Kosovo, 95.6 percent of the population is Muslim and only 2.2 percent is officially Catholic, while 1.4 percent is Orthodox. The remainder is either Protestant or Jewish. The people spearheading the movement argue that both Islam and Serbian Orthodoxy are harmful to Albanians and their identity. Most ethnic Albanians were forcibly converted to Islam when high taxes were imposed on Catholics by the Ottomans. In the war in Kosovo between 1998 and 1999, when Serbian forces destroyed Islamic facilities, libraries and archives, Albanians destroyed Orthodox churches. Many Serbian Orthodox places of worship have continued to be targeted, but Catholic places of worship have not been targeted with the same regularity.
As recently as 2023, of the 73 incidents involving violence against religious sites, 49 targeted Muslim properties, 22 targeted Serbian Orthodox sites, and just two targeted Catholic sites. Mother Theresa, although born in neighboring Macedonia, has been widely honored in Kosovo for her charitable work, while the country is seeking recognition of its statehood by the Vatican. Sarkar writes that representatives of the Catholic conversion movement argue that the right to religious belief is an individual right and that Kosovo, as a secular state, allows religious activities to operate freely without state interference. The trend of Catholic conversion has not bothered Kosovo’s politicians, since the nation has long been seeking membership into the European Union, selling itself to the world as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious place. “These conversions are building a political premise for them to prove that Kosovo is closer to Europe by trying to establish Catholicism as central to their identity given Europe’s strained relationship with Islam,” Sarkar writes.
(Religion Unplugged, https://religionunplugged.com/news/why-are-muslims-in-war-torn-kosovo-turning-to-catholicism?)
