It has long been a common place of Balkan Studies and historical writing about the Balkans to state that religion is often a major factor in conflicts. This publication illuminates the background to this complex religious culture in Albania and also touches upon subjects of importance in relevant neighboring nations (Greece and Montenegro).

It has long been a common place of Balkan Studies and historical writing about the Balkans to state that religion is often a major factor in conflicts. This publication illuminates the background to this complex religious culture in Albania and also touches upon subjects of importance in relevant neighboring nations (Greece and Montenegro).

It has long been a common place of Balkan Studies and historical writing about the Balkans to state that religion is often a major factor in conflicts. This publication illuminates the background to this complex religious culture in Albania and also touches upon subjects of importance in relevant neighboring nations (Greece and Montenegro).

The Nazis and their state-sponsored cohorts stole mercilessly from the Jews of Europe. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, returning survivors had to navigate a frequently unclear path to recover their property from governments and neighbors who had failed to protect them and who often had been complicit in their persecution. While the return of Nazi-looted art has garnered the most media attention, and there have been well-publicized settlements involving stolen Swiss bank deposits and unpaid insurance policies, there is a larger piece of Holocaust injustice that has not been adequately dealt with: stolen land and buildings, much of which today still remain unrestituted. This book is about the less publicized area of post-Holocaust restitution involving immovable (real) property confiscated from European Jews and others during World War II. In 2009, 47 countries convened in Prague to deal with the lingering problem of restitution of pre-war private, communal and heirless property stolen in the Holocaust. The outcome was the issuance by 47 states of the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues, which aimed, among other things, to "rectify the consequences" of the wrongful property seizures. This book sets forth the legal history of Holocaust immovable property restitution in each of the Terezin Declaration signatory states. It also analyses how each of the 47 countries has fulfilled the standards of the Guidelines and Best Practices of the Terezin Declaration, issued in 2010 in conjunction with the establishment of the European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI) to monitor compliance. The book is based on the Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study commissioned by ESLI, written by the authors and issued in Brussels in 2017 before the European Parliament.

The seemingly vitalizing impact of religiosity on civil society is a research topic that has been extensively looked into, not only in the USA, but increasingly also in a European context. What is missing is an evaluation of the role of institutionalized religious communities, and of circumstances that facilitate or impede their status as civil society organisations. This anthology in two volumes aims at closing this gap by providing case studies regarding political, legal and historical aspects in various European countries. Vol. I provides an introduction and looks at cases in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as chapters on legal issues and data, and comprehensive bibliography.

This collection of papers on contemporary issues in Albanian history and anthropology covers a broad range of approaches and forms of analysis. The book includes research on parts of the country that have rarely made an appearance in international scholarship, including recent research on various aspects of urban life in Albania, with several chapters being set in Shkodra, Tirana, Elbasan, and Gjirokastra. Issues of local self-organization or identity processes are presented as well. A third core aspect that is addressed is the continued analysis of new and revealing demographic sources that shed light on the structure and history of the Albanian family. (Series: Studies on South East Europe - Vol. 9)

The nonviolent revolution of Albania reinforced the belief in the West that democracy is an exportable good if Western democracies implement a right combination of pressure and aid in collaboration with internal political actors. Western pressure, coupled with technical and economic assistance was domestically understood as a conditio sine qua non for the successful implementation of the first phase of democratic reforms. However, efforts to establish a democracy in Albania raised the following question. Will the framing of the appropriate constitution and economic system - building democratic institutions and developing positive attitudes towards them - take place among Albanians through ongoing familiarization? Accordingly, the failure of the 1994 referendum on the new constitution, the overnight changes of the 1998 constitution in 2008 and the permanent stagnant economy strengthened the belief among Albanians that a democratic constitution and a functioning market economy cannot flourish if they are not rooted in an environment pervaded by a democratic culture. Furthermore, if democracy has to persist and become consolidated, it is not enough just to skillfully engineer institutions without taking into account the effect of political culture. Ultimately, this book attempts to show that the efforts made by the Western countries to export democracy to Albania and to promote consolidation through political tools generalized from other alien realities, without taking into consideration Albania’s internal political culture values, have turned out to be in the long run a ‘political abortion’. On the other hand, this book should be construed neither as a critique of democracy nor as a defense of it; it is also not a balance sheet of the success or failure of democracy and democratization processes in Albania, but rather it aims at presenting an alternative approach to democratic consolidation through Albania's authentic cultural heritage.

This book critically reviews state-religion models and the ways in which different countries manage religious diversity, illuminating different responses to the challenges encountered in accommodating both majorities and minorities. The country cases encompass eight world regions and 23 countries, offering a wealth of research material suitable to support comparative research. Each case is analysed in depth looking at historical trends, current practices, policies, legal norms and institutions. By looking into state-religion relations and governance of religious diversity in regions beyond Europe, we gain insights into predominantly Muslim countries (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia), countries with pronounced historical religious diversity (India and Lebanon) and into a predominantly migrant pluralist nation (Australia). These insights can provide a basis for re-thinking European models and learning from experiences of governing religious diversity in other socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. Key analytical and comparative reflections inform the introduction and concluding chapters. This volume offers a research and study companion to better understand the connection between state-religion relations and the governance of religious diversity in order to inform both policy and research efforts in accommodating religious diversity. Given its accessible language and further readings provided in each chapter, the volume is ideally suited for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also be a valuable resource for researchers working in the wider field of ethnic, migration, religion and citizenship studies.