The Identity of Albanians in Macedonia and the New Religious Movements
The Identity of Albanians in Macedonia and the New Religious Movements

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, the issues related to identity in modern societies are imposed at large. As a consequence of changes in the era of information society, we have been witnessing various different debates related to the identity of the postmodern individual. Also, social mobility and multimedia have influenced new identities as well as their clash and mixture. This paper will elaborate the issues of those that are similar to us, i.e. those that our “ours” and the others who are not like us, i.e. “the others”. Thus, the community, which we belong to, in some of its aspects, occasionally expresses the worries about the threats against our identity. This call or alert makes people think that they are threatened and endangered by the others. This fear, often individual, is expressed as a collective issue in terms of the ethnicity, language, state, etc. This is how an undeclared war against the others is begun. In people overwhelmed with nationalism, this is articulated as a war against the enemy. Maloouf (2005) says that identities are different and even the one whom we consider as “ours” is shared with the “others”. Language, ethnicity, culture, history, and territory make up an identity, which is different from another one. In recent years, Albanians in Macedonia have a tendency of joining various different Islamic organizations and sects. The issue is whether this increasing tendency influences the national identity of Albanians. Through a scientific research, with the help of statistical indicators, we will attempt to elaborate this phenomenon.

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