The Speaker of the Parliament, Mrs. Lindita Nikolla, held today a meeting with the leaders of religious communities, on the occasion of November 16, World Day of Tolerance.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Bujar Spahiu, Chairman of the Muslim Community; Monsignor George Frendo, Archbishop of Tirana-Durrës and Primate of the Catholic Church in Albania; His Beatitude Anastas Janullatos, Archbishop of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania; Haxhi Baba Edmond Brahimaj, Leader of the Bektashis and Sufis in Tirana and the Balkans; Pastor Ylli Doçi, President of the Albanian Evangelical Brotherhood.
After welcoming the high religious personalities in the Albanian Parliament, Speaker Nikolla praised their role as religious leaders, for the orientation of institutions, beliefs and religious communities towards the values of coexistence, humanism, harmony and tolerance.
The Speaker of Parliament also expressed her gratitude to the religious communities, who, despite the natural differences between religions, in key moments of national history have been a factor of unity and progress. The tragic history of religion in our country, the shock of the communist regime, did not harm at all the most important feature of the beliefs in Albania: tolerance. On the contrary, religious tolerance has been and remains an important regulator of religious relations in Albania.
Speaker of Albanian Parliament Mrs/ Nikolla thanked the religious leaders for their contribution to coping, first with the consequences of the earthquake, and then with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The services of representatives of all faiths to protect human life during the pandemic, especially during conditions of isolation, were a source of hope and optimism.
The religious leaders thanked the Speaker of the Parliament, Mrs. Lindita Nikolla, for the meeting and expressed their commitment to contribute to the strengthening of tolerance, harmony and civic values in social relations and beyond.
