In Kosovo, the speech came as a shock. At a party rally before local elections last October, the forceful leader of the opposition Vetëvendosje party, Albin Kurti, swore on the Koran that victory would be theirs. Once in power, he told supporters, the party would work to end Islamophobia.
At first glance, the speech makes sense – 90% of Kosovars are Muslim, who have historically practiced a very moderate, liberal form of Islam. But the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo, who comprise 92% of the population, have been fiercely pro-Western as thanks for the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 that ended decades of Serbian repression and set Kosovo on the path towards independence. Bill Clinton Boulevard runs through the center of the capital, Prishtina.
