World
Albania plans to create sovereign micro state for Sufi Muslim order
Prime Minister Edi Rama says he wants to promote tolerant Islam by creating the statelet.
Albania is planning to create its own Vatican City. This one, however, will be a Muslim one.
The New York Times reported that Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, will announce plans for a sovereign microstate within its capital, Tirana, that will follow the practices of the Bektashi Order — a Shiite Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkey.
If all goes to plan, the so-called “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” will become the world’s smallest state, just a quarter of the size of Vatican City. The 10-hectare patch of land will have its own administration, passports and borders.
The new state would allow alcohol, permit women to wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules, reflecting the Bektashi Order’s tolerant practices. Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself. “We should take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance and which we should never take for granted,” he told The New York Times.
A long mystic tradition in Albania
The history of the Bektashis dates back to the 13th century Ottoman Empire, but nearly a century ago, the Order’s headquarters moved to Tirana after being banned from Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic.
The Bektashi Order has a long mystic tradition in Albania. Espoused by the Janissaries, the elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire largely recruited from Christian areas of the Balkans. The Sufi faith does not force devotees to observe the basics of traditional Islam.
Tolerance has not led to protection from persecution, however. For hundreds of years, the faithful have found themselves under pressure — whether their overlords were Christian, Muslim or atheist — which led them to neighbouring countries such as Kosovo and Macedonia since the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Bektashis are devoted to wise men, known as dervishes. Dervish Baba Mondi is the current spiritual leader of the order. He is known by followers by his official title, His Holiness Haji Dede Baba.
Baba Mondi is set to be the leader of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order. He says decisions will be made with “love and kindness”. In an interview with Euronews in 2018, he said “being a Bektashi means being human. We have built our community basing it on the principles of peace, love, and mutual respect.”
A team of experts is working on legislation defining the new state’s sovereign status inside Albania. Rama’s governing Socialist Party will also need to endorse it.
Baba Mondi expressed hope that the United States and other Western powers would recognise his state’s sovereignty. “We deserve a state,” he told The New York Times, “We are the only ones in the world who tell the truth about Islam” and “don’t mix it up with politics.”
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June 19, 2026
World
Man charged with attempted murder, released after allegedly forcing toddler into crocodile enclosure at zoo
Man FORCES child into crocodile enclosure
A British man has been arrested after allegedly forcing a 3-year-old boy into a crocodile enclosure at a zoo. The child suffered critical injuries, and authorities say the suspect did not know the boy as the investigation continues.
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A man was released from custody on Friday after he was charged with attempted murder for allegedly forcing a 3-year-old boy into a crocodile enclosure at a zoo.
Cambridgeshire police said that the man, who remains unidentified, wasn’t fit to be interviewed.
The boy suffered critical injuries in the incident at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a farm and zoo in Huntingdon, England, north of London.
The 30-year-old man will remain on bail until Sept. 30, pending further inquiries.
GEORGIA MOM’S WALMART TRIP DEVOLVES INTO ‘TUG-OF-WARRING’ IN DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO SAVE HER SON
A crocodile rests inside an enclosure at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a farm and zoo in Old Hurst, Cambridgeshire, Britain, on April 14, 2026. (Dorota Dee Trajdos/Reuters)
“The man, who is not known to the victim, was assessed as not being fit for interview,” police said in a statement.
The boy is in stable condition, after reportedly suffering a broken arm and pelvis.
He was saved from the crocodile by Tracey Johnson, the wife of the zoo’s owner.
MOTHER JUMPS INTO WATER TO SAVE 4-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WHO FELL BETWEEN CRUISE SHIP AND DOCK
“I know Tracey very well and she’s a lovely lady and it’s nothing more than I’d expect from her,” a local told BBC News. “She’d always put her own life at risk to save someone else. She’s an extraordinary lady and very brave.
The villager added that Johnson put herself in “immense danger” during the rescue.
The owners said their tropical house would remain closed until further notice.
Crocodiles rest inside an enclosure at Johnsons of Old Hurst farm and zoo in Old Hurst, Cambridgeshire, Britain, on April 14, 2026. (Dorota Dee Trajdos/Reuters)
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family following the incident that occurred today,” the owners wrote on social media.
Johnsons of Old Hurst is a farm and zoo north of London in Huntingdon, England. (Google Maps)
Huntingdonshire district councillor Charlotte Lowe said she couldn’t “fathom how it’s happened because they’ve got all the right protection and safety equipment, for want of a better word, in there,” The Guardian reported.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary for comment.
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US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his comments on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying she asked him “over and over” for a photo when the pair met at the G7 summit in France earlier this week.
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Following the summit, Trump told an Italian journalist that he “felt sorry for Meloni” after she “begged me to take a picture with her”.
Meloni hit back in a video posted to social media, branding Trump’s claims as “completely made up” and insisting that neither she nor Italy begs anyone for anything.
The once close pair’s relationship has grown increasingly fractious in recent months, particularly since Rome refused to provide the US support for its operations in Iran and after Meloni defended Pope Leo XIV, who was criticised by the Trump administration over his remarks on the war and the US’s immigration policies.
“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Saturday. “She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon”.
“Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her “numbers up.” No thanks!!!” Trump added.
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