Kosovo

Overview
Since 1999, after the most recent Balkan war, Kosovo has been a de facto state, separate from Serbia. In 2008, the government of Kosovo was officially declared the Republic of Kosovo an independent state. Islam is the dominant religion in this youngest country of Europe with around 1.9 million inhabitants. Over 90 percent of the Albanians in Kosovo call themselves Muslim. Even when Kosovar Albanians adhere to a nominal form of Islam, they consider it an integral part of their identity. An expression which can be heard regularly in Kosovo is: “I am Kosovar Albanian and therefore a Muslim.”

Alongside the Muslim majority, there are two other dominant religious groups: The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Orthodox believers are few in number and it is estimated that there are around sixty thousand Catholics.

In addition to these three dominant religions, Kosovo has around 35 small independent Protestant Evangelical Churches, which are mostly united under one umbrella organization, the Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church (KPEC).  Following Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, the government accepted a constitution that includes freedom of religion. 

Kosovo is one the poorest countries in Europe, and comprise of six ethnic groups including Serbian, Roma and Bosnians, with the largest being the Albanians which are in general muslim.

Missionaries
Gani & Adile Smolica began the Rruga e Paqes (Way of Peace) Church in Peje in the west of Kosovo in 2002, and Primrose joined them 2003, and then Rik and Machteld in 2013. In 2011 Dan & Primrose moved to Kamenica, a small town in the east of the country where there was no church or Christian witness.