Religions
See also: Freedom of religion in Bahrain| Men | Women | TOTAL | Bahraini | Non-Bahraini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muslims | 511,135 | 355,753 | 866,888 | 567,229 | 299,659 |
| Others | 257,279 | 110,414 | 367,683 | 1,170 | 366,513 |
| Total | 768,414 | 466,157 | 1,234,571 | 568,399 | 666,172 |
| Muslim % | 70.2% | 99.8% | 45.0% |
Islam is the official religion. The citizen population is 99.8% Muslim, although the Muslim proportion falls to 70.2% when the non-national population is included. Current census data doesn't differentiate between the other religions in Bahrain, but there are about 1,000 Christian citizens and about 40 Jewish citizens.
Muslims belong to the Shi'a and Sunni branches of Islam. There are no official figures, but the Shi'a constitute 66-70% of the Bahraini Muslim population. Foreigners, overwhelmingly from South Asia and other Arab countries, constituted 54% of the population in 2010. Of these, 45% are Muslim and 55% are non-Muslim, including Christians (primarily: Catholic, Protestant, Syrian Orthodox, and Mar Thoma from South India), Hindus, Bahá'ís, Buddhists, and Sikhs.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Bahrain
Famous quotes containing the word religions:
“Those who believe in their truth—the only ones whose imprint is retained by the memory of men—leave the earth behind them strewn with corpses. Religions number in their ledgers more murders than the bloodiest tyrannies account for, and those whom humanity has called divine far surpass the most conscientious murderers in their thirst for slaughter.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The ancients adorned their sarcophagi with the emblems of life and procreation, and even with obscene symbols; in the religions of antiquity the sacred and the obscene often lay very close together. These men knew how to pay homage to death. For death is worthy of homage as the cradle of life, as the womb of palingenesis.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)