Illegal religious groups online: The pastor who recruits teachers and the ways used to attract children

Dritan Zaimi used to preach religion to primary school children at the Gustav Mayer school in Tirana, while he himself appears to be a “student” of the self-proclaimed pastor Alketa Auer in the International Online Church, which operates as a religious group on the internet not legally recognized by the Albanian state.

From the investigation by Top Channel journalist Kristi Gongo, it emerges that the English teacher met the pseudo-pastor in the 1990s, a woman who claims to heal Albanians in the name of Jesus Christ. However, they reconnected in 2020, when the religious journey is suspected to have begun, with the focus of indoctrination seemingly including children.

Exclusive Top Channel materials showed that children were given homework about God’s commandments and were graded with a 10, while there were also testimonies from parents accusing the 51-year-old of preaching the religion of “Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

But the teacher’s posts on social media platforms show that the God Dritan Zaimi believes in is Yahushua, a movement between Christianity and Judaism that uses the Hebrew form of the name Jesus. Over the years, in online publications, the teacher has written about warnings of total darkness in the world, about death, and about fighting people who do not believe.

“Now the foundations of everyone who rebels against the living and true God, Jesus Christ, will be shaken. EITHER YOU WILL SUBMIT TO THE SON, OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED. DO NOT DIE WITHOUT ACCEPTING YAHUSHUA HAMASHIASCH,” reads one of the teacher’s Facebook posts.

In addition to the virtual community, this group also has a shelter where they hold meetings at an address near Aleksandri i Madh Street in Astir, and they also organize large events with the idea of healing the sick, as well as mass baptisms, including children.

“KORÇA BOOM”