In Albania, “Is­lam has always been a synonym for backwardness, the religion of occupiers. ... He proclaimed Albania an atheist state in 1967, and under his rule mosques across the country were ...

Reporting from TIRANA, Albania — Pope Francis denounced how extremists around the world are “perverting” religion to justify violence as he arrived Sunday in Albania, a Balkan nation where ...

Albania became the first officially atheist country in the world in 1967. Its dictatorial ruler, Enver Hoxha, ordered all churches and mosques demolished or converted into sports arenas, ...

The activities of the Church were hindered; schools and seminaries closed; and bishops and priests were killed or arrested. When Albania was officially proclaimed an atheist state in 1967, more ...

Enver Hoxha that year declared Albania the world’s first atheist state, and officially suppressed all religious activity. The Ottomans conquered Albania at the end of the 14th and beginning of ...

In 1967 Albania became the world’s first atheistic state. Torture, imprisonment, exile and murder were common instruments of the communist regime against anyone suspected of challenging the ...

Standing on Albania’s Jew Street, ... declaring Albania the world’s first atheist state. His forces destroyed more than 2,000 mosques, churches and other sacred buildings, ...

But in 1946, after the Second World War, the communists took control of the country and from 1967 transformed it into an atheist state, and harshly persecuted Christians (Catholics and Orthodox ...

Three schoolgirls in Albania have been barred from attending their public school for insisting upon wearing headscarves as badges of Muslim modesty. The school's director says it is a simple ...

Albania's Prime Minister wants to give a state and nationhood -- similar to the Vatican in Italy -- to a Muslim minority within the country.