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Religion in Kosovo is separated from the state. [1] The country's constitution establishes Kosovo as a secular state, that is, neutral in matters of religious beliefs, and where everyone is equal before the law and is guaranteed freedom of religion, belief, and conscience.
According to the United States Department of State's 2017 International Religious Freedom Report, religion and ethnicity are often linked. [2] : 2 The majority of ethnic Albanians are Muslim, while some are Catholic and Protestant; almost all ethnic Serbs belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). [2] : 2 Most SOC members reside in the six majority ethnic Serb municipalities in the south of the country or in four northern Serb-majority municipalities. [2] : 2 The majority of the Muslim population belongs to the Hanafi Sunni school, although a number follow Sufi or Shia traditions and are part of the Tarikat school or the Bektashi order. [2] : 2 Tarikat leaders state that Bektashis are one of nine Tarikat orders, but the Bektashis self-identify as a separate Islamic order. [2] : 2 The majority of Roma Muslims belong to Sufi brotherhoods, a sizeable number of practising Albanian Muslims also. [3] though a few enclaves exist elsewhere. The Catholic Albanian communities are mostly concentrated in Gjakova, Prizren, Klina and a few villages near Peja and Vitina (see Laramans). Slavic-speaking Catholics usually call themselves Janjevci or Kosovan Croats. Slavic-speaking Muslims in the south of Kosovo are known as the Gorani people.
In 2011, the first population census after Kosovo's independance was largely boycotted by the Serbs, which almost all identify as Serbian Orthodox Christians [4] [2] : 2 This left the Serb population underrepresented. [5] Other religious communities, including the Tarikat and Protestant, also contest the census data. [2] : 2 Protestant leaders and those without a religious affiliation state some members of their communities were classified incorrectly as Muslims by census takers. [2] : 2 According to the census regulation, census takers did not inquire if citizens are Protestant. [2] : 2 Census data from 2011 identifies 95.6 percent of the population as Muslim, 2.2 percent as Roman Catholic, and 1.4 percent as Serbian Orthodox. [2] : 2 The following "final data" come from the "What is your religion?" part of this census: "Missing" 2495, "Islam" 1663412, "Orthodox" 25837, "Catholic" 38438, "Other Specify" 1188, "No religion" 1242, "Prefer not to answer" 7213, "Skipped" 0. [6] : 110
According to the 2012 European Social Survey, the population of Kosovo was about 88% Muslim, 5.8% Catholic, 2.9% Eastern Orthodox, 2.9% irreligious, 0.1% Protestant and 0.4% another religion. [7]
In 2010, according to Pew Research Center, Kosovo had 93.8% Muslims and 6.1% Christians (mainly Orthodox but also Catholics and even Protestants). [7] [8] [9] The remaining 0.1% seem to be mostly the unaffiliated but also the other religions, in particular Judaism. [7] [8] [10]
Religion in Kosovo (European Social Survey 2012) [7]
In 2007, the US International Religious Freedom Report said that "the last credible census was taken in the 1980s", and that the religious demographics had to be estimated. [11] The Report found that Islam was the predominant faith in Kosovo, "professed by most of the majority ethnic Albanian population, the Bosniak, Gorani, and Turkish communities, and some of the Roma—Ashkali—Egyptian community". About 100,000–120,000 people were Serbs, and these were largely Serbian Orthodox. Approximately 3.4% of ethnic Albanians were Catholics, whereas Protestants comprised a minority of less than 1%. There were only two known families of Jewish origin and no reliable data for atheists. [11] It is also likely that there are some Eastern Orthodox Albanians in Kosovo. However, with current tension between Kosovars and Serbs, they may feel as if they do not want to identify as Eastern Orthodox, as they may be thought of as "Serbs" because of their Eastern Orthodox status. If so, they are not represented in the census. Furthermore, the report claimed that religion was "not a significant factor in public life. Religious rhetoric was largely absent from public discourse in Muslim communities, mosque attendance was low, and public displays of conservative Islamic dress and culture were minimal". [11]
Christianity probably reached Kosovo in the 5th century as the Roman Empire gradually split into a Greek East and Latin West. Kosovo became part the former, known as the Byzantine Empire, and thus fell into the sphere of the Eastern Orthodox Church based in Constantinople. [12] : 60–61 During the High Middle Ages, as Byzantine rule in Kosovo gave way to the Serbian Empire in the early 13th century, there was an Orthodox Christian majority, but also a Catholic minority consisting of the Italo-Dalmatian merchant class from Ragusa, German immigrants from Hungary and Transylvania, and probably all of the native Albanian population. [12] : 60–61
The presence of Serbian Orthodox bishops in Lipjan and Prizren was first recorded in the 10th century. [12] : 207 In 1219, the Serbian Orthodox Church split from the Greek Orthodox Church, and Greek bishops were expelled from Kosovo. [12] : 207 The See of the Serbian Orthodox Church was moved from Žiča in present-day Serbia to Peja in present-day Kosovo in 1252, thus making it the religious and cultural centre of Serbian Orthodoxy. In 1346, the archbishop of Peja assumed the title of patriarch. [12] : 207
Kosovo was conquered by the Ottoman Empire along with the other remnants of the Serbian Empire in the period following the Battle of Kosovo (1389). Although the Ottomans did not force the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian population to convert to Islam, there was strong social pressure (such as not having to pay the jizya) as well as political expediency to do so, which ethnic Albanians did in far greater numbers (including the entire nobility) than Serbs, Greeks and others in the region. [13] Many Catholic Albanians converted to Islam in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite attempts by Catholic clergy to stop them. During the Concilium Albanicum, a meeting of Albanian bishops in 1703, a strict condemnation of conversion – especially for opportunistic reasons such as jizya evasion – was promulgated. Whilst many of these converts stayed crypto-Catholics to a certain extent, often helped by pragmatic lower clerics – the higher Catholic clergy ordered them to be denied the sacraments for their heresy. [14] : 86–99 Efforts to convert the Laraman community of Letnica back to Catholicism began in 1837, but the effort was violently suppressed – the local Ottoman governor put Laramans in jail. [14] : 92 After the Ottoman Empire abolished the death penalty for apostasy from Islam by the Edict of Toleration (1844), several groups of crypto-Catholics in Prizren, Peja and Gjakova were recognised as Catholics by the Ottoman grand vizier in 1845. When the Laramans of Letnica asked the district governor and judge in Gjilan to recognise them as Catholics, they were refused however, and subsequently imprisoned, and then deported to Anatolia, [14] : 93 from where they returned in November 1848 following diplomatic intervention. [14] : 94 In 1856, a further Tanzimat reform improved the situation, and no further serious abuse was reported. [14] : 96 The greater part of converts of Laramans, almost exclusively new-borns, took place between 1872 and 1924. [14] : 99
After victory at the Battle of Kosovo (1389), the Ottoman Empire imposed Islamic rule on the region. Conversion was not obligatory, but had several financial, social and political benefits. Until the sixteenth century the degree of Islamisation in Kosovo was minimal, and largely confined to urban centres. The pace of conversions to Islam only increased significantly in the second half of the sixteenth century, possibly because converts thus became exempt from the cizje , a tax levied only on non-Muslims. [15] By 1634, the majority of Kosovo Albanians had converted to Islam, although a minority remained Catholic. [12] : 130 Besides the ethnic Albanians, and the ruling Turks who settled in Kosovo, the Roma and some part of the Slavic-speaking population (later called the Bosniaks or Gorani, to distinguish them from the Orthodox Serbs) also became Muslims, most of them, by far, Sunni; many of these belong to Sufi brotherhoods, although small a minority of Shia Muslims [ dubious – discuss ] formed in the countryside. By the end of the 17th century, the Islamic population started to outnumber the Christians. [12] : 130 Between 70.6 and 95.6% of Kosovans are Muslims. [7] Most of them are Sunni, many of which belong to Sufi brotherhoods, among which are the Bektashi Order.
Kosovo is not a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
In its 2024 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House rated the country 2 out of 4 for religious freedom: [16]
The constitution guarantees religious freedom. However, the Law on Freedom of Religion prevents some religious communities from registering as legal entities, a designation that would allow them to more easily buy and rent property, access burial sites, establish bank accounts, and carry out other administrative activities. Although tensions between Muslims and Orthodox Christians have occasionally flared up in the past, interreligious relations are generally peaceful. In January 2023, the government approved draft legislation amending the law on religious freedom, with the aim of deepening interreligious tolerance. [16]
Kosovo is part of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
This article includes information on the demographic history of Kosovo.
Islam is the most widespread religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was introduced to the local population in the 15th and 16th centuries as a result of the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Islam arrived in Albania mainly during the Ottoman period when the majority of Albanians over time converted to Islam under Ottoman rule. Following the Albanian National Awakening (Rilindja) tenets and the de-emphasis of religious tradition in Albania, all governments in the 20th century pursued a secularization policy, most aggressively under the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, which actively persecuted Muslims. Due to this policy, Islam, as with all other faiths in the country, underwent radical changes. Decades of state atheism, which ended in 1991, brought a decline in the religious practice of all traditions. The post-communist period and the lifting of legal and other government restrictions on religion allowed Islam to revive through institutions that generated new infrastructure, literature, educational facilities, international transnational links and other social activities.
Christianity in Albania began when Christians arrived in Illyria soon after the time of Jesus, with a bishop being appointed in Dyrrhachium (Epidamnus) in 58 AD.
Albania is a secular and religiously diverse country with no official religion and thus, freedom of religion, belief and conscience are guaranteed under the country's constitution. Islam is the most common religion in Albania, followed by Christianity, though religiosity is low and there are many irreligious Albanians. In the 2023 census, Muslims accounted for 51% of the total population, Christians made up 16%, while irreligious were 17%. The other 16% were undeclared.
The dominant religion in Vojvodina is Orthodox Christianity, mainly represented by the Serbian Orthodox Church, while other important religions of the region are Catholic Christianity, Protestant Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Serbia has been traditionally a Christian country since the Christianization of Serbs by Clement of Ohrid and Saint Naum in the 9th century. The dominant confession is Eastern Orthodoxy in the fold of Serbian Orthodox Church.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the largest religion in Montenegro at 71% of the population, and is the religion of choice for the vast majority of ethnic Montenegrins and Serbs. In addition to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, there is also a sizeable number of adherents to Sunni Islam at 20% of the population, mainly from ethnic Bosniaks and Albanians.
Serbia is a Christian majority country, with Islam being a minority faith representing around 4.2% of the total population as per the 2022 census. Islam spread to Serbia during the three centuries of Ottoman rule. The Muslims in Serbia are mostly ethnic Bosniaks, Albanians and significant part of Muslim Roma as well as members of the smaller groups, like ethnic Muslims, Gorani and Serbs (Čitaci).
Islam in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating back to the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Before the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the entire Balkan region had been Christianized by both the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. From 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was officially governed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire and a high level of Islamization occurred among Catholic and Orthodox Albanians, mainly due to Sufi orders and socio-political opportunism. Both Christian and Muslim Albanians intermarried and some lived as "Laramans", also known as Crypto-Christians. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. After the end of Communist period religion had a revival in Kosovo. Today, 95.6% of Kosovo's population are Muslims, most of whom are ethnic Albanians. There are also non-Albanian speaking Muslims, who define themselves as Bosniaks, Gorani and Turks.
In North Macedonia, the most common religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, practiced mainly by ethnic Macedonians, Serbians, Vlachs, and Romanis. The vast majority of the Eastern Orthodox in the country belong to the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which declared autocephaly from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967.
Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. The entire Balkan region had been Christianized by the Roman, Byzantine, First Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Kingdom, Second Bulgarian Empire, and Serbian Empire till 13th century. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. Today, 87% of Kosovo's population are from Muslim family backgrounds, most of whom are ethnic Albanians, but also including Slavic speakers and Turks.
The Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church (KPEC) is a Protestant church network based in Pristina, Kosovo. It is one of the four protected major religions in the Kosovo Law of Religious Freedoms. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Kosovar Albanians follow this church, 6,000 in Pristina alone. There are a large amount of churches in all of Kosovo.
Database (WCD) 2010 and International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 of the U.S. Department of State. The article Religions by country has a sortable table from the Pew Forum report.
Kosovo does not have an official religion. Like the rest of the country, the majority of Pristina's population consider themselves to be Muslim. However, religious practices may tend to be liberal. Many do fast for Ramadan and praying is widely practiced.
The District of Peja is one of the biggest districts located in the northern hemisphere of Kosovo. Istog and Klina are the two biggest cities after Peja belonging to this particular district. During the course of history, numerous religions dominated in the aforementioned district starting from Illyrian ‘polytheist religions’, to Catholicism to Islam. Despite the numerous ethnic frictions in the region, its diverse religious groups have practiced their faiths openly and have largely lived in harmony.
The Kosovo Agency of Statistics monitors various demographic features of the population of Kosovo, such as population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Censuses, normally conducted at ten-year intervals, record the demographic characteristics of the population. The latest census started on 5th of April 2024 and according to the preliminary results, the Republic of Kosovo has 1,586,659 inhabitants, of which 795,046 are men (50.1%) and 791,614 are women (49.9%). The same year, US CIA World Factbook estimate put the country's population at 1,977,093. According to the first census conducted after the 2008 declaration of independence in 2011, the permanent population of Kosovo was 1,810,366.
The term Laraman in Albanian refers to crypto-Christians who adhered to Islam officially but continued to practice Christianity within the household during the Ottoman era. It was derived from the Albanian adjective i larmë, meaning "variegated, motley, two-faced", a metaphor of "two-faithed" (l'arë), a reference to the Laramans following both Christianity and Islam (nominally).
The Islamization of Albania occurred as a result of the Ottoman conquest of the region beginning in 1385. The Ottomans through their administration and military brought Islam to Albania.
The architectural heritage of the Kosovo Albanians during Yugoslav rule was shown institutionalised disregard for decades prior to outright conflict at the end of the 20th century. Numerous Albanian cultural sites in Kosovo were destroyed during the period of Yugoslav rule and especially the Kosovo conflict (1998-1999) which constituted a war crime violating the Hague and Geneva Conventions. In all, 225 out of 600 mosques in Kosovo were damaged, vandalised, or destroyed alongside other Islamic architecture during the conflict. Additionally 500 Albanian owned kulla dwellings and three out of four well-preserved Ottoman period urban centres located in Kosovo cities were badly damaged resulting in great loss of traditional architecture. Kosovo's public libraries, of which 65 out of 183 were completely destroyed, amounted to a loss of 900,588 volumes, while Islamic libraries sustained damage or destruction resulting in the loss of rare books, manuscripts and other collections of literature. Archives belonging to the Islamic Community of Kosovo, records spanning 500 years, were also destroyed. During the war, Islamic architectural heritage posed for Yugoslav Serb paramilitary and military forces as Albanian patrimony with destruction of non-Serbian architectural heritage being a methodical and planned component of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .