The business of religion in Macedonia
Revelations of ingrained corruption within the Orthodox Church and the Islamic Community in religious Macedonia forced investigative journalist Xhelal Neziri to leave the country when the story broke
Report from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, Kyiv
When Macedonian reporters Xhelal Neziri and Marjan Nikolovski set out to investigate the misuse of donations from believers and sale of property by religious leaders for personal profit within the Islamic Religious Community (IRC) and the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), they knew they were onto something big. Religious institutions in Macedonia have total autonomy and are completely exempt from any kind of financial reporting to the state.
In an interview with IMS at the Global Investigative Journalism Confernce in Kyiv, Xhelal Nezeri explains:
“I was first alerted to the corruption in 1994 when I spoke to an IRC tax payer who told me that a huge sum of money collected by the IRC from believers for a hospital in the city of Tetovo, had gone missing with an Imam who had left the country.”
Power struggles within religious communities
In 2007, Xhelal Neziri, himself a member of the IRC and his journalist partner, Marjan Nikolovski who belonged to the MOC, approached two opposing leaders within each of the two institutions in the hope that they would reveal the corrupt dealings of their counterparts in a bid to strengthen their own powerful positions within their institutions. This tactic of taking advantage of the internal power struggles in both the Orthodox and Islamic communities was efficient.
Unaware that Xhelal Neziri and his partner were also speaking to their counterparts, the priests and Imams were ready to expose the corrupt activities of their counterparts, thus providing evidence of misuse of donations and the sale of land by Imams and priests for personal profit.
Fleeing to Germany
When the story broke in the newspaper FAKTI in 2007, people were outraged. But the MOC, the largest religion in Macedonia, and the IRC are very powerful institutions on a political level and religion is deeply ingrained in the lives of all Macedonians. The politicians depend on support from the IRC and MOC to help them win elections. Macedonians depend on their religious affiliation in birth for registration, for marriage certificates, and for burials. “Opting out” of their religious institution is not an option.
Xhelal Neziri himself chose to leave Macedonia for an internship in Germany when the story was published. He took a German telephone number to escape the angry reactions of the IRC and MOC. However, they managed to trace his number and put through a number of intimidating calls to him.
The exposal of widespread corruption and the theft of donations did not illicit any reaction from the authorities. No steps were taken to punish the religious leaders for their crimes. However, the investigation has since led to widespread debate in Macedonian society about the dealings of the church. Xhelal Neziri and Marjan Nikolovski have also won a number of journalism awards for their efforts.
Xhelal Neziri, now works as a freelance journalist and a coordinator of the IMS-supported investigative journalism network SCOOP which also supported his investigation.
Read the full investigation here.
