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Article: Balkans: Albania's evangelical strife. (Current Affairs)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- November 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Islamic world has been bitterly transfixed by the war between Bosnian Muslims and Serbs. Unnoticed, however, is growing religious competition in Albania, a country with a Muslim majority which has suddenly found itself a hunting ground for Christian evangelicals.
FOR 45 YEARS, the only songs ever sung in the chamber-music room of Tirana's imposing white Palace of Culture were melodies of praise for the Albanian Workers' Party and its eternal leader, Enver Hoxha. Today, Hoxha is dead, Communism is a quickly fading memory, and the palace of Culture off Tirana's Skanderbeg Square is home not to slogan-shouting Marxists but to Bible-toting Mormons.
The Mormons ...