Do you think Kosovo has changed over the last 15 years because of foreign funding, religious organizations and preachers?

We used to have, for all intents and purposes, a very traditional and culturally rooted form of Islam. Religion was part of our identity, but it didn’t define who we were as Albanians.
For example, if someone had insulted Skanderbeg or openly spoken disrespectfully about our historical figures in the past, it would have caused a major social backlash. Today, I sometimes feel that this has changed.
During the Syrian Civil War, radical Islamist currents became much more visible among some people in Kosovo for the first time. Back then, society reacted quite strongly against them. Today, these groups are obviously still a small minority, but I feel that certain conservative religious ideas have gradually become more established in parts of society — and, to some extent, within institutions, NGOs and political structures as well.
This should concern us. A warning example, in my opinion, is the situation among Albanians in North Macedonia. There seems to have been a stronger shift among parts of the population toward defining themselves primarily through religion. I would describe this as a kind of “Bosniakization” — meaning that religious identity increasingly becomes more important than ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity.
I find that problematic for us Albanians. What makes us Albanian is primarily our language, culture, history and national identity — not our religion.
That is exactly why I consider secularism one of our most important values. To me, secularism is not an attack on Islam or on religious people. It is a shield against the politicization of religion.
This is especially important in Kosovo today. We already have deep political polarization and declining trust in institutions. In such an environment, no religious institution — whether the BIK or anyone else — should acquire political influence that goes beyond its religious role.
I also think we need to be fair and make a distinction here. The BIK itself has, for example, instructed its employees not to participate in election campaigns or use their institutional position for partisan political purposes. So I don’t think it would be accurate to simply claim that the entire BIK has become politically captured.
My concern is more about the growing social and political influence of religious actors, and about the willingness of our political parties to accommodate these forces for short-term political interests instead of maintaining a clear separation between religion and politics.
Kosovo is a secular state. In my opinion, we should defend that principle much more strongly. Not because religion is bad, but because our national identity should never be defined by religious authorities.
As Albanians, we should remember that our common identity has always been stronger than our religious differences. If we start defining our national identity primarily through religion, we risk losing exactly what has historically united us.
I’m not saying that Kosovo is about to become an Islamic state — obviously we are nowhere near that. My concern is about slow societal changes. And if political parties continue to ignore them because of short-term political interests, there may eventually be a point where it becomes much harder to reverse course.