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Why Muslims In War-Torn Kosovo Are Turning To Catholicism
Religion Unplugged ^ | Mar 17, 2025 | Sonia Sarkar

Posted on 11/09/2025 8:03:43 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Kosovo, the war-torn Muslim-majority Balkan nation of 1.5 million people has witnessed a growing trend of Muslims converting to Catholicism. A group called the Decanski Movement Association has been promoting the voluntary exit from Islam, while also preserving Albanian national identity and values under the motto: “We are no longer Muslims.”

Catholicism is seen as the original faith of majority Albanians living in Kosovo, and neighboring Albania, by these representatives of the movement. They argue that emotionally, Albanians have always connected with the Catholic religion, but they remained in hiding as “crypto-Catholics” and practiced Catholicism only in their personal spaces of comfort.

Historically, what is now Kosovo was conquered by the Romans before the Christian era and later ruled by Bulgarians and Serbs — both Christians — for centuries. Islam was imposed upon people in Kosovo in the year 1455 by the Ottoman Empire during its rule and later the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which Kosovo was a part of before the nation split up in the early 1990s.

Most ethnic Albanians were forcibly converted to Islam when high taxes were imposed on Catholics by the Ottomans. In fact. the current movement of religious conversion to Catholicism is seen as a return of their original identity. Despite the large number of Islamic believers, Catholicism and Orthodoxy remain among the dominant religions in Kosovo, once an autonomous province of Serbia.

The most prominent Catholic figure in Kosovo is Saint Mother Teresa.

Although born in neighboring Macedonia, she dedicated her life to religious service in Kosovo’s quiet village of Letnica, where she died in August 1997. The Church of the Blessed Lady in Letnica, where Mother Teresa embraced a life of religious devotion, serves a community of about 500 Catholics, mostly Albanians, with a few Croatians living among them.

(Excerpt) Read more at religionunplugged.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Islam; Ministry/Outreach
KEYWORDS: albania; assimilation; catholic; eu; islam; kosovo; motherteresa; yugoslavia
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The recent trends of religious conversion have not rattled Kosovo’s politicians. Kosovo has been long seeking membership into the European Union, selling itself to the world as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious place. These conversions are building a political premise for them to prove that Kosovo is closer to Europe by trying to establish Catholicism as central to their identity given Europe’s strained relationship with Islam.
1 posted on 11/09/2025 8:03:43 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Just switching from one cult to another. Your salvation is still not fulfilled.


2 posted on 11/09/2025 8:12:47 AM PST by AlaskaErik (There are three kinds of rats: Rats, Damned Rats, and DemocRats.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

At least they’re leaving the death cult of the fictional moon deity allah and his false pervert pedophile prophet Mad Mo.


3 posted on 11/09/2025 8:44:05 AM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: AlaskaErik

So the form of Christianity that was practiced from Apostolic times, was the sole form of Christianity in the West until the 16th century, and still accounts for a majority of the world’s Christians is just a cult?


4 posted on 11/09/2025 8:56:47 AM PST by Petrosius
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To: AlaskaErik

It’s reflective of a trend toward Christianity, including Evangelical Christianity, in general:

https://globalchristianrelief.org/stories/why-are-muslims-converting-to-christianity/


5 posted on 11/09/2025 9:00:14 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: AlaskaErik

As opposed to the myriad of Protestant sects such as:
Baptist
Lutheran
Church of Christ
Methodist
Assemblies of God
Unitarian
Mormon
Jehovah’s Witness
Anglican
Episcopalian
AMEC
Adventist
Pentecostal
Presbyterian
Charismatic
Non-denominational
Or any of the derivations listed above (e.g. Southern Baptist vs. Missionary Baptist).

The only thing Protestants can agree upon is they think the Catholic Church is wrong.

So which one of those holds the fullness of salvation?


6 posted on 11/09/2025 9:18:15 AM PST by Texas_Guy
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

There will never be peace on this earth until muslims convert to some form of Christianity.


7 posted on 11/09/2025 9:28:10 AM PST by budj (Combat Vet, second of three generations.)
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To: AlaskaErik

Internecine squabbling aside, the problem is that many of these “conversions” are the very core of taqiyya. Spain had a lot of experience with this in the 1490s.


8 posted on 11/09/2025 9:40:40 AM PST by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
"The topic of Albanians converting from Islam to Catholicism occasionally surfaces in Kosovo, but due to a lack of documented data, speculation ranges from isolated instances to predictions that this process could become widespread. According to Pristina-based demographic researchers interviewed by Kosovo Online, these are sporadic cases unlikely to become a mass trend.

9 posted on 11/09/2025 11:05:10 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (🦅 MAGADONIAN ⚔️ LIFE )
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

“The religion of Albanians is Albanianism.”


10 posted on 11/09/2025 11:07:25 AM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: Texas_Guy

I just left the United Methodist Church because they went far left, LGBTQ+, open borders, etc. I have two homes in two states and go to two churches, both much more conservative than the United Methodists. One church is affiliated with the Global Methodists. The other church is unaffiliated. I’m doubly glad to have left the United Methodists. What do Catholics do when their Pope favors open borders and LGBTQ+ but they do not?


11 posted on 11/09/2025 11:17:41 AM PST by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege; lightman; Navy Patriot

Kosovo is Serbia, and Serbs are Orthodox Christians!

Catholic or muslim, Albanians go back to Albania!

Save Kosovo’s Orthodox churches and monasteries!


12 posted on 11/09/2025 11:18:35 AM PST by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I’m glad they are leaving Islam.


13 posted on 11/09/2025 11:19:20 AM PST by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

sounds like a step forward

the Islamicist invasion (Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Belgium and UK....) has to be reversed soon if there is to be any chance for a Christian future in those countries


14 posted on 11/09/2025 12:14:40 PM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicians aren't born, they're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: ChessExpert

“What do Catholics do when their Pope favors open borders and LGBTQ+ but they do not?”

Pretty obviously they go on as if the pope had not favored anything.


15 posted on 11/09/2025 1:33:38 PM PST by vladimir998 ( Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: ChessExpert

We stick with Jesus. We go to Mass every Sunday because Jesus is there. There have been, um, disappointing Popes in the past. But the Holy Spirit lives with us and will not abandon us.

We weather the bad news, because we stay focus on the Good News!


16 posted on 11/09/2025 1:34:32 PM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Texas_Guy

Here’s what counts -— preaching the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, and Him crucified, cleansing believers from all unrighteousness, being raised from the dead on the third day, now glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father, and God the Holy Spirit being sent to the Earth. Everything else is gravy.
There are a few names on your list who don’t believe the above; they call themselves Christians, but they are not.


17 posted on 11/09/2025 1:43:03 PM PST by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing))
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To: married21

Fair enough. As far as I’m concerned, Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox are all Christian. There is no need to look for problems. I have no problem with Jews.

There are faiths that I consider more exotic, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. I don’t see that they pose a threat.

Muslims chant Death to America, fly planes into our buildings, plot to kill Jewish athletes and concert performers, rape infidel women, behead infidels, deny women rights, pray in the middle of the street in major western cities, demand that church bells be silenced, and demand a public call to prayers for Islam. It is noxious and imperialistic.

Islam is an evil, man-made religion. All other religious differences fade to insignificance compared to the evil of Islam.


18 posted on 11/09/2025 3:16:26 PM PST by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: Texas_Guy
Do you really like to embarrass yourself all the time? You've been corrected on this before on other threads.

You're guilty of a mortal sin now.

Now, you're doubling down and posting to a new person thinking no one else will see your post.

You and your buddy have lost all credibility.

19 posted on 11/09/2025 3:22:44 PM PST by ealgeone
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To: ChessExpert
As far as I’m concerned, Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox are all Christian.

*****

There are distinctive and key theological differences between these groups. To lump all protestants into on group is an error.

Roman Catholicism in particular has advanced many false beliefs especially with their marian dogmas.

20 posted on 11/09/2025 3:24:47 PM PST by ealgeone
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