LETTER FROM THE BALKANS
It is barely 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 31, but after serving coffee, the young dervish in the white tunic inevitably asks: “Don’t you also want some raki?” ». The bektachis of Tirana may claim to be Islamic, but they conform to the very Balkan tradition of offering guests this traditional plum or grape brandy.
Since the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, announced, to everyone's surprise, on September 21 in the New York Times and at the UN platform the next day, that he intended to give the status of sovereign state to the world headquarters of this Sufi movement in order to make it “a center of moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence”the Albanians are wondering if their head of government, known for liking to make people talk about him, is really serious.
Perched on the hills of Tirana, the world headquarters of the Bektachis has until now been a rather discreet place. A large temple pierced by light, called “The Odeon”, is surrounded by a few hectares of greenery which make the place an island of calm compared to the bustle of the Albanian capital. The domain is supposed to become an independent state with all its attributes, that is to say a seat at the United Nations and a leader, in this case, Baba Mondi, the current spiritual leader of the Bektachis.
“Better to exist globally”
“Who else do you want it to be?” »cowardly, raising his arms to the sky, this round 65-year-old man, receiving in one of his reception rooms decorated with large mystical and colorful paintings. Edmond Brahimaj, his real name, wears a hat, sports a full beard and wears the white and green tunic which designates the “great grandfather”the spiritual guides of this brotherhood which settled in Albania in the 1920s after being expelled from Türkiye by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938).
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As in the breast of the vast majority Sufi movements, he claims his mysticism and his values of “pacifism, tolerance and coexistence”. Women certainly cannot be part of the clergy but do not wear the veil. Alcohol consumption is tolerated. And in the small museum built under the large prayer room, we like to show passing French people the photograph of Baba Mondi and all the Albanian religious representatives united behind their prime minister during a visit to Paris to pay homage to the victims of the attack against Charlie Hebdo, in 2015.
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