A spiritual and religious leader of the Bektashi Muslim sect, Baba Mondi, who is set to become the head of a new sovereign ministate planned by Albania, has expressed support for Israel in an interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Last month, Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama told the UN general assembly that his government intends to create a new state within the Albanian capital, which will consist of around 0.1 square kilometres, and be a "Vatican" for the syncretic Bektashi Sufi order.
The order is the fourth largest religious community in Albania.
According to the plan, the citizens of the future state will only be members of the order’s clergy and its administrative staff, mirroring the situation in Vatican.
The 10-hectare state will permit alcohol, allow people to wear whatever they want and will not impose any lifestyle rules, with the prime minister saying it is an effort to promote a “tolerant version of Islam”.
Mondi, who has pushed the idea of creating a Bektashi “Vatican” in Tirana, said he would be the first head of the new state if it goes through.
He told The Jerusalem Post, he said he wants the group to have diplomatic status in the world and be known as the World Centre of the Bektashis.
He also expressed support for Israel, saying: "I know Israel, and I consider myself a brother of the people of Israel. I have visited all of Israel with my friends there. I was invited to a Jewish marriage of a friend."
"The Bektashis are a community and a mystical path of Islam that loves people no matter what country they come from, what religion they belong to, the colour of their skin, or their politics. We consider them as brothers and sisters,” he added.
He continued to speak highly of the hospitality he received when he visited Israel, adding that he visited many holy sites.
"Some nations in the world spend too much money on the military. But people have to find peaceful ways, without armies and wars, to allow every nation to be independent. Wars and killings are not religious. They are the Devil’s work. People that work in the Devil’s ways are not human," he added.
Mondi did not address Israel's brutal wars in Gaza, where at least 42,227 Palestinians have been killed amid widespread devastation, or Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee a devastating Israeli assault and over 2,000 have died.
The Bektashi originated in Turkey's region of Anatolia and later became the official order of the elite military units, the Janissaries. Starting as a Sunni mystic order, it later adopted elements from Shi'ism and other belief.
Over time, the order was criticised for its liberal approach to faith, which included ritual drinking of alcohol, and growing political influence, and it became reduced in size and limited to Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia.