The US State Department published on Wednesday the report on religious freedoms in 2019. In the section on Kosovo, the report states that the country's Constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits religious discrimination, but the law does not provide for ways for religious groups to gain legal status.
According to the report, the Assembly of Kosovo has not reviewed the draft law that would allow religious groups to gain legal status.
"The changes would also clarify the identity and status of some religious groups, such as the Bektashi community, which has sought recognition as a separate Islamic community," the report states.
According to him, religious groups stated that they generally have cooperative relations with local governments.
However, the Evangelical Protestant Church of Kosovo said that "municipal governments do not treat religious organizations equally in property matters, including in the granting of building permits and the allocation of burial space in public cemeteries."
According to the report, the Evangelical Protestant Church of Kosovo has stated that the Islamic Community of Kosovo has contracts for many municipal cemeteries and that they discriminate against religious minorities in the allocation of burial plots and the provision of services.
The US State Department report also quotes the Serbian Orthodox Church as having said that the Government of Kosovo has violated some of the property rights of the Church, defined by the Law on Specially Protected Areas.
Here it is mentioned "the refusal to implement a court decision, three years old, to recognize the ownership of the Serbian Orthodox Church over several plots of land around the Monastery of Deçan".
The US State Department points out that the Islamic Community of Kosovo has reported two cases of employment discrimination against Muslim practitioners.
"Several officials of the Islamic Community of Kosovo stated that the level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the media has increased and said this could harm employment opportunities for devout Muslims," the report states.
He points out that a newspaper columnist referred to Muslims who support Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "trash" and "Taliban."
According to the report, the Kosovo Police, in the first nine months of this year, reported 61 incidents with a religious motive, most of which targeted religious locations, including cemeteries.
Many incidents were related to ethnicity as well as religion, the report points out.
He, among other things, mentions a case on January 6, when, it is said, Albanians threatened a Serbian priest in front of his church in Novobërde, and another case in July, when unknown persons vandalized the Orthodox cemetery in Lipjan.
The report also recalls that United States Embassy officials in Pristina have continued to encourage authorities to protect religious sites and enforce court rulings pertaining to the Serbian Orthodox Church.
