Ben Blushi’s text on the Monastery Congress serves more as an ideological clash with Islam than as an honest historical reflection. Instead of honoring the greatest day of Albanian unity, he uses it as a springboard to produce division, creating a narrative where Muslims are presented as an obstacle to civilization and Albanianness. This approach is unfair, untrue and poor in arguments.

First, his claim that Albania was torn apart because Albanians “joined the Ottoman Empire” is a naive idea that does not hold up either theoretically or historically. If it were so, then the Albanians would be among the most united peoples in the Balkans today, because for five centuries they were among the strongest pillars of the Ottoman administration and army. If Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt, Ali Pasha Tepelena and hundreds of Albanian viziers and commanders did not become Greeks or Turks, it was not thanks to Ben Blush’s inspiration, but thanks to an identity that naturally survived within a multinational Empire. Albanians were torn apart for completely different reasons: our neighbors had states, armies, diplomacy and support from the Great Powers, while Albanians entered the 20th century without a state, without an army and without international friends. Our decision was placed at the table of the powers, not in the Albanian mosques.

Secondly, Blushi portrays the Congress of Manastir as a duel between “Muslims and the West”, as if the Muslim patriots were some kind of monster that had to be defeated. This is a dark distortion of the truth. In Congress, Muslims voted for the Latin alphabet not because they suddenly became against Islam, but because they were Albanians and loved Albania. Without their vote, which was a numerical majority, the Latin alphabet would never have passed. The fact that Blushi overlooks with the ease of someone who is afraid of reality.

Thirdly, the claim that “if the Islamists won, Albania would have no literature, art and culture” is pure absurdity. If Islam had degraded the culture and language, then why didn’t we become Greeks, Serbs or Turks? How is it explained that precisely the Albanian Muslim population, peasants and citizens, preserved their language better than other ethnic communities of the Empire? How is it possible that the Albanian language stayed alive for five centuries and was not absorbed by any other dominant culture? This happened because Islam was not an enemy of the Albanian identity. On the contrary, the Albanian community and the Hoxhallars of Vis became a social stratum that preserved tradition, language and ethnic consciousness. Without this layer, there would be no Latin alphabet, no National Renaissance, no Independence.

Fourth, the thesis that Albanians were perceived as “little Turks” because of religion is another manipulation. Albanians were perceived as part of the Empire because of their political, not religious, status. Bulgarians, Romanians, Bosnians, Syrians and Arabs were also inside the Empire, but no one treated them as “little Turks”. Blushi uses religion as a political argument because he does not have the courage to analyze the geopolitical reality. While it is easier to blame Islam than to admit that the great powers divided us for their own interests and not because of the religion held by the Albanians.

Fifth, the language with which he describes his compatriots as “wretched Muslims” is not the language of history, but prejudice. It is the language of a man fighting a personal ghost, not arguments. A people’s religion is not misery; it’s a shame when you humiliate your people to support an empty narrative.

The stubborn fact is this: the Congress of Manastir was a victory for all Albanians: Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox. The Latin alphabet became a reality because the Muslim majority accepted it with maturity and vision. Without this consensus, neither the Congress would have made sense, nor would Blushi have today the alphabet to write against Islam.

Therefore, before we give Islam the blame of history, at least give it the credit it deserves. Islam that protected the language for centuries, that preserved the identity, that contributed to the Latin alphabet, and that was an unwavering part of the Renaissance and Independence. If Islam had wiped us out, there would be no Albania, no language, no Congress of Manastir and no platform for Blushi to use to throw mud at a part of his people.

This is the truth and this is stronger than any of his ideological prejudices.

Kaynak: prizrenpost