Assalaamu 'alaikum,
(This article is adopted from a paper written by Albanian scholar Dr. Ismail Bardhi)
Albanians contributed immensely to Islamic scholarship in literature, the arts poetry and thought. Albania has a rich history of learning. Some of the most famous poets were influenced by Arabic stories and folklore and in many ways intellectually Islamasised their Albanian civilisation.
Although the Albanians converted to Islaam, ethnic hatred and religious wars were a rarity. Rather conflicts were based on economic reasons. Christian and Muslim peasants united to challenge the rich aristocracy. According to Noel Malcom, the concept of ethnic hatred is a modern phenomenon, a result of Serbian nationalism.
Serbia invaded and occupied Albania in the early 1900s to “save” and “liberate” the Christian Slavic population from the Muslim Albanians. The colonisation was in fact very similar to the way that Western European nations colonised Africa or India. In Albania’s case the Serbs invaded Albania to “liberate” Serbs in Albania, claiming that they had been oppressed during the centuries of Ottoman rule. They “liberated” the Albanian Serbs by giving them preferential treatment and special privileges while denying the same treatment to other Albanians (mainly Muslim). Over time the bond that had existed between native Christians and Muslims eroded away and eventually created a polarised, often hostile environment. In a sense, this is when real “ethnic hatred” started; a harmful by product of discriminatory Serbian policies.
As Muslims globally lost power to the European Christians, the latter started to carve up Islamic territories. At the London Conference in 1912 Albania was divided among Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. They all created a new state, Kosovo, composed primarily of Albanians.
… to continue Insha’Allaah.