Thanks to the warm solidarity of our friend Prof. Zymer Neziri, a folklore expert, CIP executive director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz and a delegation of Sufis from Bosnia-Hercegovina and Montenegro were hosted in the Kosova Republic's capital, Prishtina, late in November 2008. Schwartz led a panel of more than a dozen speakers at a conference on Kosova protest demonstrations of 1968 as seen in their fortieth anniversary. The Conference On The 40th Anniversary of the 1968 Protests in Kosova, Macedonia and Montenegro was organized by the Kosova Society of Political Prisoners, the Institute of History of Kosova and the Albanological Institute of Prishtina.
During the visit group members visited leading Sufis in the new republic. The attached photographs show Schwartz with Sheh Besim Shehu of Rahovec, of the Halveti-Karabashi Sufis, whose father's martyrdom is described in several of Schwartz's books; Baba Mumin Lama of the Kosova Bektashis, Baba Edmond Brahimaj of the Tetova Bektashis, and Dervish Abdylmytalib of the Tetova Bektashis.
CIP has organized donations of books and equipment to two institutions in Kosova, the library of the Bektashi teqe in Gjakova, which is headed by Baba Mumin, and the Pjetër Muqaj school, which educates both Catholic and Muslim primary students, in Guska near Gjakova
Schwartz with Sheh Besim Shehu in Rahovec
Schwartz with Baba Mumin Lama in Gjakova
Schwartz with Baba Edmond Brahimaj in Tetova
Schwartz with Dervish Abdylmytalib in Tetova