Many European countries worry about foreign imams bringing fundamentalist rhetoric from the Middle East into their mosques. France wants to educate them locally and Belgium is considering mandatory civics and language courses for foreign preachers.
In Albania, the threat is seen from fundamentalists who visit the country under the cover of aid missions, and from religious schools vying to cater to an upsurge in religious interest since the collapse of the atheist rule of dictator Enver Hoxha in 1990.
Many Albanians converted to Islam during the five centuries under Ottoman rule, but intermarriage with the country's Catholic and Orthodox Christian minorities was not uncommon.
Hoxha, a dogmatic Stalinist, banned all religion during his four decades in power. Nowadays most Albanians identify with a religious group but do not practice their faith devoutly.
Around 60 percent of the population are moderate Sunni Muslims but analysts say the national spirit is more attuned to the liberal overtones of Bektashism, a sect derived from a mystic Shia order that flourished in Turkey under the Ottomans.
Bektashis, making up an estimated 15 percent of Albanians, are allowed alcohol and do not require women to wear a veil. Bektashi poets and intellectuals played a key role in Albania's 19th century enlightenment and nation-building.
"An Albanian of Muslim stock very likely drinks wine, eats pork, enjoys parties and marries someone from another religion," said Artan Fuga, sociology professor at Tirana University.
"As the saying goes 'the religion of Albanians is Albanianism'.
But in recent years, thousands of young men wanting to learn more about Islam have travelled to religious schools abroad, most attending month-long crash courses in the Salafi branch of Islam which promotes a strict, traditional interpretation of Islamic doctrine.
When they return, young Salafist preachers are known to clash with the Muslim leadership over its practices, build new mosques and deliver hard-line sermons.
In the mountain village of Dragostunje in eastern Albania, a row over the imported teachings has divided the two imam siblings in the Gurra family, which has provided the village with imams for over 300 years.
Influenced by the new teachings, the younger brother grew a long beard and started calling for women to be veiled and for the prohibition of television and music at weddings.
"They came with new customs in our old village, with a tradition unsuitable for this country," said Faik Gurra, the older of the imam siblings. "How can they come and tell me to change the prayer my father taught me?"
Hoping to stem the tide, Muslim elders turned to socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano for help.
The government now plans to build a theology school "to end the export-import of students with Islamic countries" and use databases to keep tabs on those who studied abroad.
Some religious schools in the Arab world, known as madrassas, have been accused of breeding fundamentalism by teaching a radical brand of Islam that demonises the West.
"With the databases, we can see who attended prestigious Islamic universities and who was schooled in unlicensed courses in cellars," Kulla said.
A handful of radical Islamists sought shelter in Albania in the 1990s, to be later arrested and extradited with help from the US Central Intelligence Agency. Albania hopes the new measures would prevent a repeat.
"It would not only cause security problems but could also be a serious obstacle to our Euro-Atlantic integration," Kulla said.
After their long isolation, Albanians are fervently pro-West and see eventual European Union membership as salvation from poverty, high unemployment and corruption.
The government has said it expects to start talks with the EU by mid-2005, but many fear a backlash from a Muslim-weary European public opinion, as expressed during Turkey's bid for a start to entry talks last December.
A secular profile could help, as would the many Albanians who live in countries like Greece, Italy and Germany and have become fully integrated.
Closer to home, most Albanians are proud of the middle way.
"I don't like veils and long beards but then again I don't like priests on bicycles roaming the streets," said street vendor Shaban, who thought that religious clothing should not be worn in public but only inside places of worship.