Status of Religion in Egypt
According to the constitution, Islam is the official religion of Egypt. The Egyptian people have a large sense of piety and are devout followers of their adhered religions. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, covering about 90% of the population, while Christians represent about 10% (official figures put it as low as 3%) of the population. A clear majority of the Muslim population is Sunni.
The Christians are mainly Copts, of which is divided into two groups, where one as tied close organization relations to the Roman Catholic Church. There are other small Christian groups, standard Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox, in Alexandria and Cairo, whose adherents are mainly descendants of Italian, Greek, and Armenian immigrants.
Other groups include, Chaldean, Maronite, and Syrian Catholic Churches.
An Evangelical Protestant church, first established in the middle of the 19th century, has grown to a community of 17 Protestant denominations. There also are followers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which was granted legal status in the 1960s.
The non-Muslim, non-Coptic communities range in size from several thousand to hundreds of thousands.
The number of Baha'is has been estimated at between several hundred and a few thousand.
The Jewish community which florished in numbers before the 1950s, today number fewer than 200 persons. There are very few atheists. Worship of the original Egyptian gods has all but disappeared.
Religious Freedom
See also
References
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Egypt under GFDL
