section_path: Controversies/Bektashi state proposal
section_name: Bektashi state proposal
paragraph_text: Bektashi state proposal
  
  In September 2024, Rama announced plans to create the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order within the capital city of Tirana to serve as the territory of the Bektashi Order. The plan faced criticism and controversy, with the Muslim Community of Albania calling the plan "a dangerous precedent for the future of the country". Albanians interviewed by Balkan Insight characterized the planned state as a distraction from alleged domestic scandals created by Edi Rama in an attempt to gain favorable news coverage. Besnik Sinani, a research fellow at the Center for Muslim Theology at Tübingen University, said the comparison to Vatican City "does not withstand historical scrutiny" and called the proposal "an unprecedented case of contemporary religious engineering." He further said he believed it would "disrupt the historical arrangements of the relationship between religion and state in Albania".