did Albania under Enver Hoxha outlawed/banned religion or is this just a Myth ?

[leftwinger2007]

Hi my question is did Albania under Enver Hoxha outlawed/banned religion or is this just a Capitalist Myth I have had Capitalists tell me this but did they just ban religion in public or ban organized religion in public I heard because it divided Albania also I found a link a speech Enver Hoxha gave that said people can believe if they choose was religion allowed in private have Qurans Bibles Religions Pray does the Albanian Constitution below really say ban religion ?


The Albanian Constitution of 1976
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
Approved by the People's Assembly on December 28, 1976
Republished for the record, BA March 2005


Article 37


The state recognizes no religion whatever and supports atheist propaganda for the purpose of inculcating the scientific materialist world outlook in people.


As for religion, you need not worry about it. To believe or not to believe is a personal right, a question of conscience and not an institutional question: religion cannot be imposed according to the desire or will of the hodjas, the bishops or the Pope of Rome.


However while there was certainly oppression against organized religion, religious public worship, religious leadership, and promotion of atheism. In many Marxist Leninist states, like the USSR, China, the DPRK etc. The only place on earth to truly outlaw religion was Albania, where being caught with a Bible or a Quran carried jailtime, religious weddings and even names were outlawed.



Then came the Leninist, in the Russian revolution of 1917 and the rise of Marxist-Leninism or state socialism which is where you get the first theories about state atheism, Lenin and Stalin were very clear about the destruction of religion, a good example is the league of militant of atheists

[ckaihatsu]

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Religion[edit]

Further information: State atheism and religion in Albania

Albania, the only predominantly Muslim country in Europe at that time, largely owing to Turkish influence in the region, had not, like the Ottoman Empire, identified religion with ethnicity. In the Ottoman Empire, Muslims were viewed as Turks, Orthodox Christians were viewed as Greeks, and Roman Catholics were viewed as Latins. Hoxha believed this was a serious issue, feeling that it both fueled Greek separatists in southern Albania and that it also divided the nation in general. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1945 confiscated much of the church's property in the country. Catholics were the earliest religious community to be targeted, since the Vatican was seen as being an agent of Fascism and anti-Communism.[99] In 1946 the Jesuit Order was banned and the Franciscans were banned in 1947 . Decree No. 743 (On religion) sought a national church and forbade religious leaders from associating with foreign powers.

The Party focused on atheist education in schools. This tactic was effective, primarily due to the high birthrate policy encouraged after the war. During what the religious consider "holy periods," such as Lent and Ramadan, many foods which are scorned by them (dairy products, meat, etc.) were distributed in schools and factories, and those who refused to eat those foods were denounced for their reactionary behaviour.

Starting on 6 February 1967, the Party began to defend the principles of atheistic materialism from Abrahamic religious obscurantism and reaction. Hoxha, who had declared a "Cultural and Ideological Revolution" after being partly inspired by China's Cultural Revolution, encouraged communist students and workers to use more forceful tactics to defend atheism, although violence was initially condemned.[100]

According to Hoxha, the surge in pro-atheist activity began with the youth. The result of this "spontaneous, unprovoked movement" was the closing of all 2,169 churches and mosques in Albania. State atheism became official policy, and Albania was declared the world's first atheist state. Town and city names which echoed Abrahamic religious themes were abandoned for neutral secular ones, as well as personal names. During this period religiously based names were also made illegal. The Dictionary of People's Names, published in 1982, contained 3,000 approved, secular names. In 1992, Monsignor Dias, the Papal Nuncio for Albania appointed by Pope John Paul II, said that of the three hundred Catholic priests present in Albania prior to the Communists coming to power, only thirty were still active.[101] Promotion of religious obscurantism and all clerics were outlawed as reactionaries. Those religious figures who refused to embrace the principles of Marxist-Leninism were either arrested or carried on their activities from in hiding.[102]




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha#Religion