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The authors of the Institute for International Studies stated that one of these causes is the chaotic religious education, coming from abroad.
The Albanian Institute of International Studies published today the study "Religion and Doctrine: The Ideological Roots and Causes of Radicalism in Albania", which presents a broad picture on the spread of radical ideologies in Albania.
The head of the Institute and study, Albert Rakipi, said the religious education could lead to radicalism. Albania was surprised when hundreds of Albanians went to the war in Iraq and Syria, said Rakipi, because the extremism and religious radicalism are foreign to Albanian Islam.
"By 2012, the debate about religion and radicalism has been peripheral. The politics, the state and the religion have had strong relationships, especially before the Second World War. During the Cold War Albania has been far from radical religious debates. Albania has been immune from jihadism." said Mr. Rakipi.
According to him, radicalism has been fed by the weak state in social affairs, and most of the Albanians who joined the Islamic State were from poor areas.
Mr. Rakipi said the religious education in the first decade after the communist dictatorship was chaotic, informal, without infrastructure, without approved school curricula. In this period there was a conversion from the moderate Islam to a more conservative, more extremist Islam.
"The issue of funding is essential to be protected from foreign influences. Radicalism is not related to the weak state or economic factors because Albania was weaker in the 1990s than in 2012." Said Mr. Rakipi.
The authors of the study claimed that the ideological factors are important in the impetus of the radicalism.
During the transition, the rise of radicalism became apparent, they claimed, because it began to create a new perception of Islam in Albania, on the transformation of religion and its revival, with external cooperation, with support and funding by foreign organizations.