Talk:Albania: Difference between revisions
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::::::::Yeah I should add, a lot of the areas that had low rates of responses were "Muslim" but these (except for Gramsh) were almost always Bektashi areas. Cermenika was traditionally heavily Bektashis, Mallakastra also a Bektashi stronghold along with Halvetis; Kurvelesh proper (the municipality not the ethnographic region which is more Bektashi) is more Halveti but it actually had a high rate of religious responses, not a low one. There is a long-running pattern where Bektashi areas, being 15-25% of the country in teh early 1900s, had either large numbers of nonreligious responses or "Muslim" ones, so that the only "Bektashi" dominated areas were in the historically practically 100% Bektashi Skrapar and a couple municipalities around Bulqiza which is also a stronghold. Elsewhere the decline in Bektashis is tremendous, going down to 2% nationally. Of course there are possible explanations for this but still the criticism leveled on the census by Bektashis has been pretty salient. As for the Catholics personally I can't see any area (did tons of maps) that I can point to and recognize a decrease but that's my OR, if the Catholics criticized it too, sure I guess it goes on the page. As for the Orthodox, a lot of them acknowledge issues like that but the birth rate issue is not really a huge difference and it's more regional than religious- the Northeast which is mostly Muslim (and some Catholics and Bektashis) has birthrates slightly above replacement (parts of Catholic Lezhe probably do too), but the rest of the country, including the center where the overwhelming majority of Muslims actually live, has below replacement birthrates. On a regional basis the Orthodox do also have some basis to their complaints-- Albanian media has pointed out the mysterious disappearance of large numbers of people from Orthodox-heavy Myzeqe, and polls of Orthodox believers in urban centers (where most live) showed that the majority weren't even contacted. Of course its' also fair to note that Orthodox and Bektashis, as southerners, are more secularized than (Sunni) Muslims and Catholics so part of the loss of their numbers can be traced to the growth of irreligion especially among the young -- but this can't explain the reports of many people not even being contacted.--[[User:Calthinus|Calthinus]] ([[User talk:Calthinus|talk]]) 19:07, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
::::::::Yeah I should add, a lot of the areas that had low rates of responses were "Muslim" but these (except for Gramsh) were almost always Bektashi areas. Cermenika was traditionally heavily Bektashis, Mallakastra also a Bektashi stronghold along with Halvetis; Kurvelesh proper (the municipality not the ethnographic region which is more Bektashi) is more Halveti but it actually had a high rate of religious responses, not a low one. There is a long-running pattern where Bektashi areas, being 15-25% of the country in teh early 1900s, had either large numbers of nonreligious responses or "Muslim" ones, so that the only "Bektashi" dominated areas were in the historically practically 100% Bektashi Skrapar and a couple municipalities around Bulqiza which is also a stronghold. Elsewhere the decline in Bektashis is tremendous, going down to 2% nationally. Of course there are possible explanations for this but still the criticism leveled on the census by Bektashis has been pretty salient. As for the Catholics personally I can't see any area (did tons of maps) that I can point to and recognize a decrease but that's my OR, if the Catholics criticized it too, sure I guess it goes on the page. As for the Orthodox, a lot of them acknowledge issues like that but the birth rate issue is not really a huge difference and it's more regional than religious- the Northeast which is mostly Muslim (and some Catholics and Bektashis) has birthrates slightly above replacement (parts of Catholic Lezhe probably do too), but the rest of the country, including the center where the overwhelming majority of Muslims actually live, has below replacement birthrates. On a regional basis the Orthodox do also have some basis to their complaints-- Albanian media has pointed out the mysterious disappearance of large numbers of people from Orthodox-heavy Myzeqe, and polls of Orthodox believers in urban centers (where most live) showed that the majority weren't even contacted. Of course its' also fair to note that Orthodox and Bektashis, as southerners, are more secularized than (Sunni) Muslims and Catholics so part of the loss of their numbers can be traced to the growth of irreligion especially among the young -- but this can't explain the reports of many people not even being contacted.--[[User:Calthinus|Calthinus]] ([[User talk:Calthinus|talk]]) 19:07, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
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::::::Many people declared they were not contacted and many of them just lied. Many took part on the orchestrated circus that is repeated every time something important happens in Albania. The census had some problems but was generally successful in showing the situation of population in Albania. The Orthodox in Albania are as many as census showed or probably something less. Many religious people were not contacted, many atheists were incorrectly counted as religious people, and many public personalities asked common people to not declare their religion. The problems of census were mostly not caused by gov but by some certain religious institutions who can not accept that numbers of their followers are shrinking and some public figures who wanted to gain some more minutes on TV by making false misrepresentations of process. '''I want to remind editors that this website is not intended to serve as a forum and the person who opened this discussion is the same one who blamed problems of Albania on Muslims some time ago.''' [[User:Ktrimi991|Ktrimi991]] ([[User talk:Ktrimi991|talk]]) 19:34, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
::::::Many people declared they were not contacted and many of them just lied. Many took part on the orchestrated circus that is repeated every time something important happens in Albania. The census had some problems but was generally successful in showing the situation of population in Albania. The Orthodox in Albania are as many as census showed or probably something less. Many religious people were not contacted, many atheists were incorrectly counted as religious people, and many public personalities asked common people to not declare their religion. The problems of census were mostly not caused by gov but by some certain religious institutions who can not accept that numbers of their followers are shrinking and some public figures who wanted to gain some more minutes on TV by making false misrepresentations of process. '''I want to remind editors that this website is not intended to serve as a forum and the person who opened this discussion is the same one who blamed problems of Albania on Muslims some time ago.''' [[User:Ktrimi991|Ktrimi991]] ([[User talk:Ktrimi991|talk]]) 19:34, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
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::::::: I suggest that you focus your energies on enriching the article of ISIS & kosovo ( as shown by your contributions history ) , rather than making non based accusations. This section of wikipedia serves by default as a forum where editors discuss about certain things that are relevant to the article of Albania. [[User:Gjirokastra15|Gjirokastra15]] ([[User talk:Gjirokastra15|talk]]) 20:25, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
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::::: Hello there Resnjari! My comment was about the the whole conduct of the census, and not just about Orthodox numbers. The census was plagued by massive issues from simple infrastructure to the conduct of the census takers. We have reports of people not being asked about contacted at all by the census takers, the census takers not asking the religion or even filling out the questions themselves. On a personal note, most atheist/irreligious people I know were counted as religious since they would be asked "Are you a Christian/Muslim?" as if the option of being irreligious or another religion did not exist. Also and in many cases they reported receiving a hostile response by the census takers when they would say atheist. As for the Orthodox now, it is true they had a lower birthrate then the Muslims and emigration hitting them harder, the issue of conversion to Orthodox Christianity is not debated about it actually happening. Particularly Albanians form "Muslim background" (a term I find problematic for post-Communist Albanians) who immigrated to Greece were prone to convert for a number of reasons, including social pressure. The practice is so widespread that people like even the Metropolitan of Elbasan, Andon Merdani and Miron Çako, an important theologian are from this background. One thing one should also consider is that the Orthodox Church demands conversion from the spouses if they are of another religion and want a church wedding, so just by this alone the number of Orthodox tend to be higher. Even if their conversions would be not honest, they still would figure in the numbers. Another thing of note was the anti-Anastas campaign by the "Red And Black Alliance" (Aleanca Kuq e Zi) which might have promoted many nationalist Orthodox Albanians to refuse to declare religion. But as I said, the issue is not the Orthodox, since even the Catholics and the Bektashis have criticized the census results. [[User:Vargmali|Vargmali]] ([[User talk:Vargmali|talk]]) 18:31, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
::::: Hello there Resnjari! My comment was about the the whole conduct of the census, and not just about Orthodox numbers. The census was plagued by massive issues from simple infrastructure to the conduct of the census takers. We have reports of people not being asked about contacted at all by the census takers, the census takers not asking the religion or even filling out the questions themselves. On a personal note, most atheist/irreligious people I know were counted as religious since they would be asked "Are you a Christian/Muslim?" as if the option of being irreligious or another religion did not exist. Also and in many cases they reported receiving a hostile response by the census takers when they would say atheist. As for the Orthodox now, it is true they had a lower birthrate then the Muslims and emigration hitting them harder, the issue of conversion to Orthodox Christianity is not debated about it actually happening. Particularly Albanians form "Muslim background" (a term I find problematic for post-Communist Albanians) who immigrated to Greece were prone to convert for a number of reasons, including social pressure. The practice is so widespread that people like even the Metropolitan of Elbasan, Andon Merdani and Miron Çako, an important theologian are from this background. One thing one should also consider is that the Orthodox Church demands conversion from the spouses if they are of another religion and want a church wedding, so just by this alone the number of Orthodox tend to be higher. Even if their conversions would be not honest, they still would figure in the numbers. Another thing of note was the anti-Anastas campaign by the "Red And Black Alliance" (Aleanca Kuq e Zi) which might have promoted many nationalist Orthodox Albanians to refuse to declare religion. But as I said, the issue is not the Orthodox, since even the Catholics and the Bektashis have criticized the census results. [[User:Vargmali|Vargmali]] ([[User talk:Vargmali|talk]]) 18:31, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
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::@Calthinus, @Vargmali the lines between Bektashi and Sunni has blurred somewhat due to both sides not adhering much to traditional practices of their Muslim denominations that caused it to be more visible in the past + intermarriage. Though considered separate some Bektashi do consider themselves in a generic sense as Muslims. The the higher birthrate for Muslims has come from the north-east, the less integrated ones -Clayer goes into this (see that article link i posted above). Yes there where sizable discrepancies with certain areas like Myzeqe that is populated by Orthodox settlements, but the same case can be made of areas that have Muslims, but the idea that there has been a massive rise in Orthodox numbers is not borne out. 13, 000 is the main number of converts from Islam to Christianity. That is divided among evangelical groups and the Orthodox church though Catholic missionaries have been proselyting among Muslims too. In areas of southern Albania from the Korca zone up until the Bregdet zone, numbers have fallen of villagers residing there (i.e migration to Greece -many permanent -in monographs by Winifrith and Nitsiakos both refer to the depopulation process of the area), and much of those contained the Orthodox population in Albania. Only the next census will bear out what discrepancies the 2011 census had as the EU will make it a precondition that Albania conducts a census to EU standards. Until then, if academics have done studies and other reliable academic data etc they are our best attempt at kind of getting some picture of what has happened with regards to religious demographics post 1992. The best thing we can do for now is to just keep an eye out for when such data is published and available and then we can make edits. Best.[[User:Resnjari|Resnjari]] ([[User talk:Resnjari|talk]]) 19:47, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
::@Calthinus, @Vargmali the lines between Bektashi and Sunni has blurred somewhat due to both sides not adhering much to traditional practices of their Muslim denominations that caused it to be more visible in the past + intermarriage. Though considered separate some Bektashi do consider themselves in a generic sense as Muslims. The the higher birthrate for Muslims has come from the north-east, the less integrated ones -Clayer goes into this (see that article link i posted above). Yes there where sizable discrepancies with certain areas like Myzeqe that is populated by Orthodox settlements, but the same case can be made of areas that have Muslims, but the idea that there has been a massive rise in Orthodox numbers is not borne out. 13, 000 is the main number of converts from Islam to Christianity. That is divided among evangelical groups and the Orthodox church though Catholic missionaries have been proselyting among Muslims too. In areas of southern Albania from the Korca zone up until the Bregdet zone, numbers have fallen of villagers residing there (i.e migration to Greece -many permanent -in monographs by Winifrith and Nitsiakos both refer to the depopulation process of the area), and much of those contained the Orthodox population in Albania. Only the next census will bear out what discrepancies the 2011 census had as the EU will make it a precondition that Albania conducts a census to EU standards. Until then, if academics have done studies and other reliable academic data etc they are our best attempt at kind of getting some picture of what has happened with regards to religious demographics post 1992. The best thing we can do for now is to just keep an eye out for when such data is published and available and then we can make edits. Best.[[User:Resnjari|Resnjari]] ([[User talk:Resnjari|talk]]) 19:47, 8 December 2017 (UTC) |
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Ranked 6 by literacy rate?
International rankings section claims rank 6 by literacy rate without any citation, Education sector claims 98.7% literacy rate with a valid citation. Bit of a contradiction there, a citation needed situation for sure.
Pepper
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change ((pepper))s to ((Capsicum|peppers)) Ppwest (talk) 16:37, 2 November 2017 (UTC)
Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 2 November 2017
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In the third paragraph, please change "In the late twelfth century, Charles of Anjou conquered the Albanian..." to "In the late thirteenth century, Charles of Anjou conquered the Albanian..." because Charles of Anjou conquered the Albanian territories and was proclaimed king in 1272 which is in the thirteenth, not the twelfth, century C.E. Thank you Ppwest (talk) 16:27, 2 November 2017 (UTC)
External links modified
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Demographic section
Is it able to remove all those informations, which is mostly only about the 2011 census, and replace them into a new article or maybe within a new section within the "Demographics of Albania", because the Demographics section in "Albania" is very confusing and informs only about the census and not about (very little) the population of Albania.
Thanks! :)
- No, absolutely not. Khirurg (talk) 18:23, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
Calm down
Regarding the religious demographics as per the 2011 census
There are some serious issues regarding the religious demographics of Albania as presented by the 2011 census. The threefold decrease of the orthodox community can be only an artificial one , and the evangelicals/protestants are greatly underreported. The empirical data is clearly pointing towards to a census manipulation. Per example only 1 protestant church in Tirana is having around 6000 followers on its facebook page which is more than the total percentage given for the evangelicals/protestants in the 2011 census for the whole Albania , there are around 30-40 protestant churches in Tirana alone and many of them have followers in excess of 2000 people. The orthodox community as per the 2011 census appears to have decreased by an impossible 300 % when the catholics per example have the same percentage vis a vis the last census where religion was included ... thus this alone should show that this is not a pan christian phenomenon. The orthodox church has officialy denied to recognize the census , and some days prior to its publication there were reports in the media alluding to the fact that the religious composition of the country was different from its muslim majority legacy. Anecdotal evidences ( such as how big the masses are for easter ) show a more than twofold dominance of the orthodox community vis a vis the catholic one ... this suggests a more than (2 x 10.08 % = 20.16 % ) percentage as of the total population of Albania. I am writting this as an intro which will serve our discussion in producing a consensus , sources will be presented in the following comments. Given the magnitute and the divergence of the 2011 census percentages compared to reality it is only logical that these issues get the merited attention in the demographics section. Gjirokastra15 (talk) 09:45, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
- Do you have a Reliable Source that disputes the official census numbers?50.111.33.130 (talk) 17:19, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
- Regarding both the Bektashi and Orthodox percentages, there is a whole host of sources discussing how the number is much lower than it should be. These are on this page currently, and elsewhere. While there is less discussion of this, the same is true of atheists, and there was the odd fact that the preliminary results showed 70% not declaring a religion, but somehow this changed when the final results were results were released drastically to only 16%. It should be noted however that is true that populations of Bektashi and Orthodox origin are more secularized than Sunni and Catholic populations (see Irreligion in Albania for details on this), because there are more irreligious people in the South of Albania than the North. As for the Catholics, the Catholic church does not dispute the results, nor do any other sources for the Catholics that I'm aware of. Also, this is plain OR from me, but it is easy to find Albanians who are not Muslim but know that is how they were counted on the census because of their last names (some Christians have Muslim last names due to either mixing or Ottoman times, and many people of all backgrounds are in fact atheist)-- one atheist miscounted as a Muslim (I'm not talking about myself) edits this wiki, in fact.--Calthinus (talk) 18:17, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
- I added the opinion of a European Council report which criticizes the census results and the Gallup poll from 2016 to give e better picture of the religious situation in Albania. I should also mention that the Albanian Catholics openly criticized the results. The 2011 census is widely contested, so I think we should use other sources is possible. Vargmali (talk) 10:08, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Thought i would to the mix that during the later part of the communist era, the Orthodox in comparison to other religious communities in Albania had a lower birth rate (Clayer, p. 6 [1]) and also that a sizable part of the community permanently emigrated to Greece. Older generations that made up the community are also passing away. Also conversion rates to Orthodoxy by Muslims has been debatable inside and outside Albania, -due to the authenticity of their conversions being viewed by traditional Orthodox believers and even among those who are doing the converting as for mainly purposes of gaining access to the Greek market (Kretsi [2] -there is more sources on this, for now it will do as i have other stuff to do at the moment). Best.Resnjari (talk) 14:28, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- There is nothing to suggest that only the orthodox have emigrated, and according to INSTAT there are no significant differences in the TFR (total fertility rate ) throughout the country. In fact the vast majority of those that emigrated to Greece belong (nominally) to the muslim faith , my family included - although myself i identify as an evangelical -. Gjirokastra15 (talk) 18:19, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Muslims have migrated in sizable numbers and that is accounted for in scholarship. With the Orthodox toward the latter part of the communist era their numbers shrunk somewhat due to the birthrate vis a vis the other religious communities and coupled with post-1992 migration resulted in a more quicker decline. This decline was sort of evident even in the census done right after WW2 which Czekalski cites (p.120) [3] "The census of 1945 showed that the vast majority of society (72%) were Muslims, 17.2% of the population declared themselves to be Orthodox, and 10% Catholics." It was already down by 3% from the usual touted number of 20%. In a 2015 study by Miller and Johnstone they cited a figure of 13,000 people in Albania [4] who were from a Muslim background that had converted to Christianity. Their study did not state though which Christian denominations they had converted to. Even so 13,000 during the post-communist era (and some that converted to access the Greek work market) is not big as often many of the people live in urban centres where communities dominate religious numbers resulting in little impact or them permanently migrating. The main rise has been those not declaring a religion (whether its due to them doing so as a protest against the census that time for they said was patriotic like reasons or them being actually irreligious). There are a few other issues with the census. Many places that did not declare a religion in Albania were places that traditionally had a Muslim population like the mountainous interior of Kurvelesh or parts of Mallakster, Cermenike in the north etc. Most areas known for having had a traditional population of Orthodox did declare in the census, as did the Catholics. So its complicated, some religious communities have not come to terms with demographic declines of past decades and have reacted differently vis a vis society which also holds its own views. Next census if similar results are borne out then porbably then can the 2011 results have some more backing. Calthinus has done a whole heap of maps that show that data from the census and can be compared to previous data. Best.Resnjari (talk) 18:48, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Yeah I should add, a lot of the areas that had low rates of responses were "Muslim" but these (except for Gramsh) were almost always Bektashi areas. Cermenika was traditionally heavily Bektashis, Mallakastra also a Bektashi stronghold along with Halvetis; Kurvelesh proper (the municipality not the ethnographic region which is more Bektashi) is more Halveti but it actually had a high rate of religious responses, not a low one. There is a long-running pattern where Bektashi areas, being 15-25% of the country in teh early 1900s, had either large numbers of nonreligious responses or "Muslim" ones, so that the only "Bektashi" dominated areas were in the historically practically 100% Bektashi Skrapar and a couple municipalities around Bulqiza which is also a stronghold. Elsewhere the decline in Bektashis is tremendous, going down to 2% nationally. Of course there are possible explanations for this but still the criticism leveled on the census by Bektashis has been pretty salient. As for the Catholics personally I can't see any area (did tons of maps) that I can point to and recognize a decrease but that's my OR, if the Catholics criticized it too, sure I guess it goes on the page. As for the Orthodox, a lot of them acknowledge issues like that but the birth rate issue is not really a huge difference and it's more regional than religious- the Northeast which is mostly Muslim (and some Catholics and Bektashis) has birthrates slightly above replacement (parts of Catholic Lezhe probably do too), but the rest of the country, including the center where the overwhelming majority of Muslims actually live, has below replacement birthrates. On a regional basis the Orthodox do also have some basis to their complaints-- Albanian media has pointed out the mysterious disappearance of large numbers of people from Orthodox-heavy Myzeqe, and polls of Orthodox believers in urban centers (where most live) showed that the majority weren't even contacted. Of course its' also fair to note that Orthodox and Bektashis, as southerners, are more secularized than (Sunni) Muslims and Catholics so part of the loss of their numbers can be traced to the growth of irreligion especially among the young -- but this can't explain the reports of many people not even being contacted.--Calthinus (talk) 19:07, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Many people declared they were not contacted and many of them just lied. Many took part on the orchestrated circus that is repeated every time something important happens in Albania. The census had some problems but was generally successful in showing the situation of population in Albania. The Orthodox in Albania are as many as census showed or probably something less. Many religious people were not contacted, many atheists were incorrectly counted as religious people, and many public personalities asked common people to not declare their religion. The problems of census were mostly not caused by gov but by some certain religious institutions who can not accept that numbers of their followers are shrinking and some public figures who wanted to gain some more minutes on TV by making false misrepresentations of process. I want to remind editors that this website is not intended to serve as a forum and the person who opened this discussion is the same one who blamed problems of Albania on Muslims some time ago. Ktrimi991 (talk) 19:34, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- I suggest that you focus your energies on enriching the article of ISIS & kosovo ( as shown by your contributions history ) , rather than making non based accusations. This section of wikipedia serves by default as a forum where editors discuss about certain things that are relevant to the article of Albania. Gjirokastra15 (talk) 20:25, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Muslims have migrated in sizable numbers and that is accounted for in scholarship. With the Orthodox toward the latter part of the communist era their numbers shrunk somewhat due to the birthrate vis a vis the other religious communities and coupled with post-1992 migration resulted in a more quicker decline. This decline was sort of evident even in the census done right after WW2 which Czekalski cites (p.120) [3] "The census of 1945 showed that the vast majority of society (72%) were Muslims, 17.2% of the population declared themselves to be Orthodox, and 10% Catholics." It was already down by 3% from the usual touted number of 20%. In a 2015 study by Miller and Johnstone they cited a figure of 13,000 people in Albania [4] who were from a Muslim background that had converted to Christianity. Their study did not state though which Christian denominations they had converted to. Even so 13,000 during the post-communist era (and some that converted to access the Greek work market) is not big as often many of the people live in urban centres where communities dominate religious numbers resulting in little impact or them permanently migrating. The main rise has been those not declaring a religion (whether its due to them doing so as a protest against the census that time for they said was patriotic like reasons or them being actually irreligious). There are a few other issues with the census. Many places that did not declare a religion in Albania were places that traditionally had a Muslim population like the mountainous interior of Kurvelesh or parts of Mallakster, Cermenike in the north etc. Most areas known for having had a traditional population of Orthodox did declare in the census, as did the Catholics. So its complicated, some religious communities have not come to terms with demographic declines of past decades and have reacted differently vis a vis society which also holds its own views. Next census if similar results are borne out then porbably then can the 2011 results have some more backing. Calthinus has done a whole heap of maps that show that data from the census and can be compared to previous data. Best.Resnjari (talk) 18:48, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Hello there Resnjari! My comment was about the the whole conduct of the census, and not just about Orthodox numbers. The census was plagued by massive issues from simple infrastructure to the conduct of the census takers. We have reports of people not being asked about contacted at all by the census takers, the census takers not asking the religion or even filling out the questions themselves. On a personal note, most atheist/irreligious people I know were counted as religious since they would be asked "Are you a Christian/Muslim?" as if the option of being irreligious or another religion did not exist. Also and in many cases they reported receiving a hostile response by the census takers when they would say atheist. As for the Orthodox now, it is true they had a lower birthrate then the Muslims and emigration hitting them harder, the issue of conversion to Orthodox Christianity is not debated about it actually happening. Particularly Albanians form "Muslim background" (a term I find problematic for post-Communist Albanians) who immigrated to Greece were prone to convert for a number of reasons, including social pressure. The practice is so widespread that people like even the Metropolitan of Elbasan, Andon Merdani and Miron Çako, an important theologian are from this background. One thing one should also consider is that the Orthodox Church demands conversion from the spouses if they are of another religion and want a church wedding, so just by this alone the number of Orthodox tend to be higher. Even if their conversions would be not honest, they still would figure in the numbers. Another thing of note was the anti-Anastas campaign by the "Red And Black Alliance" (Aleanca Kuq e Zi) which might have promoted many nationalist Orthodox Albanians to refuse to declare religion. But as I said, the issue is not the Orthodox, since even the Catholics and the Bektashis have criticized the census results. Vargmali (talk) 18:31, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- There is nothing to suggest that only the orthodox have emigrated, and according to INSTAT there are no significant differences in the TFR (total fertility rate ) throughout the country. In fact the vast majority of those that emigrated to Greece belong (nominally) to the muslim faith , my family included - although myself i identify as an evangelical -. Gjirokastra15 (talk) 18:19, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Thought i would to the mix that during the later part of the communist era, the Orthodox in comparison to other religious communities in Albania had a lower birth rate (Clayer, p. 6 [1]) and also that a sizable part of the community permanently emigrated to Greece. Older generations that made up the community are also passing away. Also conversion rates to Orthodoxy by Muslims has been debatable inside and outside Albania, -due to the authenticity of their conversions being viewed by traditional Orthodox believers and even among those who are doing the converting as for mainly purposes of gaining access to the Greek market (Kretsi [2] -there is more sources on this, for now it will do as i have other stuff to do at the moment). Best.Resnjari (talk) 14:28, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- I added the opinion of a European Council report which criticizes the census results and the Gallup poll from 2016 to give e better picture of the religious situation in Albania. I should also mention that the Albanian Catholics openly criticized the results. The 2011 census is widely contested, so I think we should use other sources is possible. Vargmali (talk) 10:08, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- @Calthinus, @Vargmali the lines between Bektashi and Sunni has blurred somewhat due to both sides not adhering much to traditional practices of their Muslim denominations that caused it to be more visible in the past + intermarriage. Though considered separate some Bektashi do consider themselves in a generic sense as Muslims. The the higher birthrate for Muslims has come from the north-east, the less integrated ones -Clayer goes into this (see that article link i posted above). Yes there where sizable discrepancies with certain areas like Myzeqe that is populated by Orthodox settlements, but the same case can be made of areas that have Muslims, but the idea that there has been a massive rise in Orthodox numbers is not borne out. 13, 000 is the main number of converts from Islam to Christianity. That is divided among evangelical groups and the Orthodox church though Catholic missionaries have been proselyting among Muslims too. In areas of southern Albania from the Korca zone up until the Bregdet zone, numbers have fallen of villagers residing there (i.e migration to Greece -many permanent -in monographs by Winifrith and Nitsiakos both refer to the depopulation process of the area), and much of those contained the Orthodox population in Albania. Only the next census will bear out what discrepancies the 2011 census had as the EU will make it a precondition that Albania conducts a census to EU standards. Until then, if academics have done studies and other reliable academic data etc they are our best attempt at kind of getting some picture of what has happened with regards to religious demographics post 1992. The best thing we can do for now is to just keep an eye out for when such data is published and available and then we can make edits. Best.Resnjari (talk) 19:47, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
- Regarding both the Bektashi and Orthodox percentages, there is a whole host of sources discussing how the number is much lower than it should be. These are on this page currently, and elsewhere. While there is less discussion of this, the same is true of atheists, and there was the odd fact that the preliminary results showed 70% not declaring a religion, but somehow this changed when the final results were results were released drastically to only 16%. It should be noted however that is true that populations of Bektashi and Orthodox origin are more secularized than Sunni and Catholic populations (see Irreligion in Albania for details on this), because there are more irreligious people in the South of Albania than the North. As for the Catholics, the Catholic church does not dispute the results, nor do any other sources for the Catholics that I'm aware of. Also, this is plain OR from me, but it is easy to find Albanians who are not Muslim but know that is how they were counted on the census because of their last names (some Christians have Muslim last names due to either mixing or Ottoman times, and many people of all backgrounds are in fact atheist)-- one atheist miscounted as a Muslim (I'm not talking about myself) edits this wiki, in fact.--Calthinus (talk) 18:17, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
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"Albania recognizes almost three national minorities, Greeks, Macedonians and Montenegrins, and two cultural minorities: Aromanians and Romani people.[202] Other Albanian minorities are Bulgarians, Gorani, Serbs, Balkan Egyptians, Bosniaks and Jews."
To
"Albania recognizes the following national minorities: Greek, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Serb, Roma, Egyptian, Bosnian and two cultural minorities: Aromanians and Romani people.[202]"
The sources are: 1. http://www.novinite.com/articles/184224/Albania+has+Recognized+the+Bulgarian+Minority+in+the+Country 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarians_in_Albania#Acknowledgement_of_the_Bulgarian_minority
Please make this change in the other langueages also. Rogershehu (talk) 10:21, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
Done Here in the English Wikipedia. The English Wikipedia, however, has no control or authority over the Wikipedias in other languages and cannot automatically make this change or force it into those other languages. You will need to either perform this change yourself or request others to perform this change at the appropriate pages in the other language projects. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 15:50, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
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