Nearly 300 Muslim religious leaders from across Albania issued a blistering statement on Thursday condemning Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as genocide, calling on Muslims worldwide to reject silence in the face of mass killings and destruction.
The unprecedented declaration, signed by imams, scholars and community leaders, accuses Israel of “systematically targeting civilians” and using starvation as a weapon of war, with Gaza’s population pushed to the brink of famine.
The leaders said: “This is not a war; it is a genocide against a besieged people who have no means to defend themselves.”
They condemned governments that continue to arm and fund “Israel’s slaughter” and criticised Muslim-majority states for failing to act decisively, warning that history would judge their inaction.
The statement also urged Muslims to pressure their governments, boycott companies complicit in Israel’s military campaign, and offer unwavering solidarity with Palestinians facing annihilation.
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“It is not enough to pray for Gaza,” the signatories said. “We must speak out, act, and stand firmly against oppression wherever it exists.”
‘Albania’s government has deepened ties with Israel without any concern about the Muslim community reaction’
– Baki Goxhaj, activist in Albania
“This declaration reflects growing frustration within Albanian civil society over the Albanian state’s silence about, and Prime Minister Edi Rama’s stance, as Tirana continues to fully cooperate with the Israeli regime,” Albanian historian Olsi Jazexhi told Middle East Eye.
A post on Israel’s official Arabic-language X account on Monday urged Europe to “remove this fifth column” of Muslims, echoing Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and targeting millions of Muslims across Europe, including ethnic Albanians in the Balkans, branding them “the true face of colonisation”.
In September last year, MEE revealed that Albania’s chief rabbi, Yoel Kaplan, had been seen in a video celebrating the devastation in Gaza and leading Israeli troops in prayer there.
In a phone interview in December, Kaplan, who splits his time between Albania, Greece and Israel, but is not an Albanian citizen and serves as an active member of the Israeli army, admitted to MEE that he had fought in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Muslim community ignored
Baki Goxhaj, a prominent pro-Palestine activist in Albania, invoked the genocides and ethnic cleansing suffered by Albanians in Chameria and Kosovo as he welcomed the show of courage from Albania’s imams over Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“As Albanians, and especially as Muslim Albanians, we have suffered all war crimes, from the Greek genocide of Chameria to ethnic cleansing and massacres under Serbia and Montenegro, to the most recent massacres and ethnic cleansing in Kosova that was stopped in its tracks by Nato intervention,” Goxhaj told MEE.
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He praised the statement as a “much-anticipated step in pressuring the Albanian government to review its stance towards Israel”.
Goxhaj also criticised the silence of Albania’s Muslim leadership until now, saying they “patted themselves on the back for making prayers in the mosque” while offering only “sporadic” mentions of Gaza in sermons.
This “quietism”, he said, has fuelled anger among a Muslim community that “mostly love and respect their imams” but has grown frustrated at their lack of action.
He argued that the country’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has exploited this silence, deepening military and political ties with Israel “without any concern about the Muslim community reaction”.
In a report published last year by Oil Change International, Albania was one of the top five countries supplying Israel with refined petroleum products after the United States, Russia and Brazil.
