Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The 2006 census counting method did not include religion, so the number of adherents of the different religions are usually rough estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies.
Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010, is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims A Muslim , pronounced /ˈmʊslɪm/, is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah (Arabic: مسلمة). Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah comprising between 80% and 90% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The vast majority of Muslims in Egypt are part of the Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. It is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah (Arabic: أهل السنة والجماعة "people of the example and the community") or Ahl as-Sunnah (Arabic: أهل السنة) for short. The word Sunni comes from the word Sunnah (Arabic: سنة), which means the. A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi Sufism or taṣawwuf , also spelled as tasavvuf and tasavvof, is generally understood to be the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ), though some adherents of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals of the Sufi orders Ṭarīqah means "way, path, method" and refers to an Islamic religious order; in Sufism, it is conceptually related to ḥaqīqah "truth", the ineffable ideal that is the pursuit of the tradition. Thus one starts with Islamic law, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and then is initiated onto the mystical path of a ṭar,[9] and there is a minority of Shi'a Shia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites umbering a few thousands.
The remainder of Egyptians, numbering between 10% and 20% of the population, belongs to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christological theology from that of the Eastern Orthodox and, an Oriental Orthodox Oriental Orthodoxy is the communion of Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Ephesus. They rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon . Hence, these Oriental Orthodox Churches are also called Old Oriental Christian Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, the manifestation of God to humankind (Immanuel), and God (Yahweh or the "Lord") himself Church.[1][3][4][5][6] The most recent declarations, made by Pope Shenouda III and bishop Morkos of Shubra in 2008, put forward the number of Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christological theology from that of the Eastern Orthodox and Copts A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian. Copts form a major ethno-religious group that has ancient origins. Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone semantic shift in Egypt as being over 12 million. Other estimates made by church officials estimate this number to be 16 million. Protestant churches claim a membership of about 300,000 Egyptians,[10] and the Coptic Catholic Church The Coptic Catholic Church is an Alexandrian Rite sui juris particular Church with the full communion with the Pope. The Church numbers about 162,000 . Historically, Coptic Catholics represent a schism from the Coptic Orthodox Church, leaving that church in order to come into full communion with Rome. The current Coptic Catholic Patriarch of is estimated to have a similar membership among Egyptians.[7][8] Based on these estimates, the total number of Christians in Egypt is between 15% and 20% of a total population of 80 million Egyptians. While some government sources have claimed a percentage of around 6 to 10%,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] a number of published sources such as the Washington Institute, in addition to some of the Coptic A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian. Copts form a major ethno-religious group that has ancient origins. Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone semantic shift sources, uphold that Christians represent more than 10% of the total population and claim that they actually still compose up to 15 or even 20% of the Egyptian population.[19][20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
There is also a small, but nonetheless historically significant, non-immigrant Bahá'í population, estimated around 2000 persons[17], and an even smaller community of Jews Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts. Judaism presents itself as the covenantal relationship between the Children of Israel (later, the Jewish nation) and God about 200,[17][26] then a tiny number of Egyptians who identify as atheist Atheism can be either the rejection of theism, or the position that deities do not exist. In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities and agnostic Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of deities, spiritual beings, or even ultimate reality — are unknown or, in some forms of agnosticism, unknowable. It is not a religious declaration in itself and the terms are not. The non-Sunni, non-Coptic communities range in size from several hundreds to a few thousand. The original Ancient Egyptian religion These deities were worshipped with offerings and prayers, in local and household shrines as well as in formal temples managed by priests. Different gods were prominent at different periods of Egyptian history, and the myths associated with them changed over time, so Egypt never had a coherent hierarchy of deities or a unified mythology. However, has all but disappeared.
According to the constitution of Egypt The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the supreme law of Egypt. It was adopted on September 11, 1971 through a public referendum. It was later amended in 1980, 2005 and 2007. It was proclaimed to update the democratic representative system in assertion of the rule of law, independence of Judiciary, and party plurality, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic law Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means "way" or "path to the water source". It is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence and for Muslims living outside the domain. Sharia deals with; however, the constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda.[12]
Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient mosques A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, Arabic: مسجد — Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmæsdʒɪd] . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller,. Since 640 AD, as many mosques have appeared throughout Egypt, so Cairo Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the, has acquired the nickname of "city of a thousand minarets"Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar Mosque, founded in 970 A.D Anno Domini , abbreviated as AD or A.D., and Before Christ, abbreviated as BC or B.C., are designations used to number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The calendar era to which they refer is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus, with AD denoting years after the start of this epoch, and BC by the Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate or al-Fātimiyyūn was an Arab Shi'a dynasty that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Egypt, Sicily, Malta and the Levant from 5 January 909 to 1171. The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the Egyptian city of Cairo as their capital. The term Fatimite is sometimes used to refer to the citizens of this as the first Islamic Islam (Arabic: الإسلام al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the religion articulated by the Qur’an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of the single incomparable God (Arabic: الله, Allāh), and by the Islamic prophet Muhammad's demonstrations and real-life examples (called the Sunnah, University in Egypt and the main Egyptian Church the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christological theology from that of the Eastern Orthodox and established in the middle of the 1st century by Saint Mark Mark the Evangelist , is the traditional name of the author of the Gospel of Mark. Tradition identifies him with the John Mark mentioned as a companion of Saint Paul in Acts, who later is said to have become a disciple of Saint Peter. John Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas (Mark's kinsman) on Paul's first missionary journey. After a sharp dispute,.
In Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,, Muslims A Muslim , pronounced /ˈmʊslɪm/, is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah (Arabic: مسلمة). Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah and Christians A Christian (pronounced /ˈkrɪstʃən/ ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God live as neighbors, they share a common history History is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events and national identity A nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin. The development and conceptualization of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, although nationalists would trace nations into the, they also share the same ethnicity An ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed, race The term race or racial group usually refers to the categorization of humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. The most widely used human racial categories are based on salient visual traits , and self-identification, culture Culture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:, and language A language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is.[27][17]
Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives, The Adhan The adhān (أَذَان) is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin. The root of the word is ʼḏn "to permit", and another derivative of this word is uḏun, meaning "ear." (Islamic call to prayer) that is heard five times a day has the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to media and entertainment. Cairo Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the is famous for its numerous mosque A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, Arabic: مسجد — Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmæsdʒɪd] . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, minarets Minarets (Turkish: minare, from Arabic manāra منارة, usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure and is justifiably dubbed "the city of 1,000 minarets",[28] with a significant number of church towers A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure. They may be stand-alone structures, or incorporated into the entrance or center of the building. This religious landscape has been marred by a history of religious extremism,[29] recently witnessing a 2006 judgement of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court, which made a clear legal distinction between "recognized religions" (i.e., Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the religion articulated by the Qur’an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of the single incomparable God (Arabic: الله, Allāh), and by the Islamic prophet Muhammad's demonstrations and real-life examples (called the Sunnah,, Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, the manifestation of God to humankind (Immanuel), and God (Yahweh or the "Lord") himself, and Judaism Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts. Judaism presents itself as the covenantal relationship between the Children of Israel (later, the Jewish nation) and God) and all other religious beliefs. This ruling effectively delegitimizes and forbids practice of all but the three Abrahamic religions Abrahamic religions has become a popular and often used designation for the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, emphasizing their common origin and values. For some 1,300 years their histories and thought have been intertwined. The three are all considered inextricably linked to one another because of a 'family likeness' and a.[30] This judgement had made it necessary for non-Abrahamic religious communities to either commit perjury or be denied Egyptian identification cards (see Egyptian identification card controversy The Egyptian identification card controversy resulted from a ruling of the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt on December 16, 2006 against the Bahá'ís stating that the government may not recognize the Bahá'í Faith in official identification cards), until a 2008 Cairo court case ruled that unrecognized religious minorities may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents.[31]
The Hanging Church The Hanging Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by 29 steps; early travelers to Cairo dubbed it "the Staircase Church." The land surface has risen by some 6 metres since the Roman period so of Cairo Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the, first built in the third or fourth century AD, is one of the most famous Coptic A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian. Copts form a major ethno-religious group that has ancient origins. Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone semantic shift Churches in Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Egyptian Arabic: Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about 1,010,.In 2002, under the Mubarak Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, (Arabic: محمد حسني مبارك; commonly known as Hosni Mubarak; Arabic: حسني مبارك; , (born 4 May 1928), is the 4th and current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. He was appointed Vice President in 1975, and assumed the presidency on 14 October 1981, following the assassination of President government, Coptic Christmas (January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday,[32] though Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion.[33] The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and intellectuals (such as Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Tarek Heggy), maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt. Of the 32 cabinet ministers, two are Copts: The successful Finance Minister Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali and the Minister of Environment Magued George; and of the 25 local governors, only one is a Copt (in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena). However, Copts have demonstrated great success in Egypt's private business sector;[34] Naguib Sawiris, one of Egyptians successful businessmen and one of the world's wealthiest 100 people is a Copt. At the same time there is a numerous number of private companies shared by both Muslims and Copts.
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