Total population | |
---|---|
approx. 21 million (34.1%) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Eastern (coastal) part of the country | |
Religions | |
predominantly Sunni Islam with Shia Islam and ahmadiyya minorities |
Islam by country |
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Tanzania is a Christian majority nation, with Islam being the largest minority faith in the country. [2] According to a 2020 estimate by Pew research center, Muslims represent 34.1% of the total population. [1] The faith was introduced by merchants visiting the Swahili coast, as it became connected to a larger maritime trade network dominated by Muslims. This would lead to local conversions and assimilations of foreign Muslims, ultimately causing the eventual formation of several officially Muslim political entities in the region. [3] [4] However, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), 55.3% of the population is Christian, 31.5% is Muslim, 11.3% practices traditional faiths, while 1.9% of the population is non-religious or adheres to other faiths as of 2020. [5] The ARDA estimates that most Tanzanian Muslims are Sunni, with a small Shia minority, as of 2020. [3]
On the mainland, Muslim communities are concentrated in coastal areas, with some large Muslim majorities also in inland urban areas especially and along the former caravan routes. More than 99% of the population of the Zanzibar archipelago is Muslim. The largest group of Muslims in Tanzania are Sunni Muslim, with significant Shia and Ahmadi minorities. According to the Pew Research Center research conducted in 2008 and 2009, 40% of the Muslim population of Tanzania identifies as Sunni, 20% as Shia, and 15% as Ahmadi, [6] besides a smaller subset of Ibadism practitioners as well as non-denominational Muslims. [7] Most Shias in Tanzania are of Asian/Indian descent. [8] Most Ahmadis are also of South Asian descent. [9]
The earliest evidence of a Muslim presence in the African Great Lakes is the foundation of a mosque in Shanga on Pate Island, where gold, silver and copper coins dating from 830 were found during an excavation in the 1980s. The oldest functioning mosque is the Kizimkazi mosque which dates back to the 11th or early 12th century. [3]
The political history of Islam in the country can be traced to the establishment of the Kilwa Sultanate in the 10th century by Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi, [10] a Persian prince of Shiraz. [11] Islam was mainly spread through trade activity along the East African coast and by the 16th century, Islam was firmly established in the region. [3]
Around the 19th century, trading routes between the Tanzanian interior and the Swahili coast intensified the influence of Swahili culture and religion. Despite the importance of trade, the spread of Islam in the interior was mainly facilitated by Sufi missionaries, converted locals returning from the coast, and Muslim chiefs during the colonial period. [12] [3]
Sufi orders like the Qadiriyya and Shadhiliyya propagated throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, further consolidating Islam in the interior. During the struggle for Tanzanian independence in the mid-20th century, the Muslims of the nation supported the movement. [12]
Freedom of religion in Pakistan is formally guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan for individuals of various religions and religious sects.
Uganda is an overwhelmingly Christian majority country, with Islam being the second most widely professed faith. According to the 2014 National Census, Islam in Uganda was practised by 14 percent of the population. The Pew Research Center in 2014, however, estimated that 11.5 percent of Ugandans were Muslim, compared to 35.2 percent of Tanzanians, 9.7 percent of Kenyans, 6.2 percent of South Sudanese, 2.8 percent of Burundians, and 1.8 percent of Rwandans. The vast majority of Muslims in Uganda are Sunni. Small Shia and Ahmadi minorities are also present.
Islam is the dominant religion in Egypt, with approximately 90% of Egyptians identifying as Muslims. The majority of Egyptian Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam, while a small minority adhere to Shia Islam. Since 1980, Islam has served as Egypt's state religion. Due to the lack of a religious census, owing to the alleged undercounting of non-Muslim minorities in Egyptian censuses, the actual percentage of Muslims is unknown; the percentage of Egyptian Christians, who are the second-largest religious group in the country, is estimated to be between 6% and 11% of the population.
Islam is the largest religion in the Comoros. According to the 2006 estimate by the U.S. Department of State, roughly 98% of the population in the Comoros is Muslim. Virtually all Muslims in the Comoros are Sunni belonging to Shafi'i school of jurisprudence. Most adherents are Arab-Swahili, but there are also people of Indian, largely Gujarati, descent.
Islam was the first Abrahamic monotheistic religion to arrive in Ghana. Today, it is the second most widely professed religion in the country behind Christianity. Its presence in Ghana dates back to the 10th century. According to the Ghana Statistical Service's Population and Housing census (2021), the percentage of Muslims in Ghana is about 20%.
Islam is the largest and the state religion of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan has over 240 Million adherents of Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions.
Islam in Djibouti has a long history, first appearing in the Horn of Africa during the lifetime of Muhammad. Today, 98% of Djibouti's 490,000 inhabitants are Muslims. According to Pew, 77% follow the denomination of Sunnism, whilst 8% are non-denominational Muslim, and the remaining 13% follow other sects such as Quranism, Shia, Ibadism etc.. After independence, the nascent republic constructed a legal system based in part on Islamic law.
Cameroon is a Christian majority nation, with Islam being a minority faith practiced by around 30.6% of the total population as of 2022. Among Cameroonian Muslims, approximately 27% identify themselves as Sunni, 2% Ahmadi and 3% Shia, while the majority of the rest do not associate themselves with a particular group and sect.
Kenya has a Christian majority, with Islam being the second largest faith representing 11% of the Kenyan population, or approximately 5.2 million people as of the 2019 census. The Kenyan coast is mostly populated by Muslims. Nairobi has several mosques and a notable Muslim population. The faith was introduced by merchants visiting the Swahili coast, which led to local conversions and foreign Muslims becoming assimilated. This would later result in the emergence of several officially Muslim political entities in the region.
Islam in Africa is the continent's second most widely professed faith behind Christianity. Africa was the first continent into which Islam spread from Southwest Asia, during the early 7th century CE. Almost one-third of the world's Muslim population resides in Africa. Muslims crossed current Djibouti and Somaliland to seek refuge in present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia during the Hijrah ("Migration") to the Christian Kingdom of Aksum. Like the vast majority (90%) of Muslims in the world, most Muslims in Africa are also Sunni Muslims; the complexity of Islam in Africa is revealed in the various schools of thought, traditions, and voices in many African countries. Many African ethnicities, mostly in North, West and East Africa consider Islam their Traditional religion. The practice of Islam on the continent is not static and is constantly being reshaped by prevalent social, economic, and political conditions. Generally Islam in Africa often adapted to African cultural contexts and belief systems forming Africa's own orthodoxies.
Religion in Iraq dates back to Ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia between circa 3500 BC and 400 AD, after which they largely gave way to Syriac Christianity and later to Islam.
Islam is a minority religion within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the large majority of the population is affiliated with various Christian denominations and sects. It was first introduced to the Congo basin from the East African coast during the 19th century and remains largely concentrated in parts of Eastern Congo, notably in Maniema Province. Most Congolese Muslims are Sunni and follow the Shafi‘i and Maliki school of jurisprudence (fiqh). Though estimates vary, it is generally believed that between one and 10 percent of the country's population identify as Muslim.
The earliest evidence of Hinduism in Tanzania is from the 1st millennium AD when there was trade between East Africa and Indian subcontinent. Most of these traders came from Gujarat, Deccan and the Chola empire. Archaeological evidence of small Hindu settlements have been found in Zanzibar and parts of Swahili coast, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
As of 2022, Muslims are the largest religious minority in Israel, accounting for 18.1% of the country's total population. Most of this figure is represented by the Arab citizens of Israel, who are the country's largest ethnic minority, but there is a notable non-Arab Muslim populace, such as that of the Circassians. Upwards of 99% of Israel's Muslims are Sunnis and the remainder are Ahmadis. Despite Shias constituting the second-largest Islamic sect, there are no reliable sources attesting a Shia presence in Israel or the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which the Israeli government administers as the Judea and Samaria Area. There were only seven Shia villages in the entirety of Mandatory Palestine and all of these were located along what is now the Israel–Lebanon border before being depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Islam is the most prominent religion on the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago and could be considered the Islamic center in the United Republic of Tanzania. Around 99% of the population in the islands are Muslim, with two-thirds being Sunni Muslim and a minority Ibadi, Ismaili and Twelver Shia. Islam has a long presence on the islands, with archeological findings dating back to the 10th century, and has been an intrinsic part in shaping mercantile and maritime Swahili culture in Zanzibar as well as along the East African coast.
Christianity is the largest religion in Benin, with substantial populations of Muslims and adherents of traditional faiths. According to the most recent 2020 estimate, the population of Benin is 52.2% Christian, 24.6% Muslim, 17.9% traditionalist and 5.3% follows other faiths or has no religion.
Christianity is the largest religion in Tanzania, with a substantial Muslim minority. Smaller populations of Animists, practitioners of other faiths, and religiously unaffiliated people are also present.
According to the 2012 census, Islam is the most followed religion in Niger and is practiced by 99% of the population. According to Pew, roughly 80% of Muslims are Sunni of Maliki school of jurisprudence, whilst 20% are non-denominational Muslims Other religions practiced in Niger include Animism and Christianity.
Non-denominational Muslims are Muslims who do not belong to, do not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches. Such Muslims do not think of themselves as belonging to a denomination but rather as "just Muslims" or "non-denominational Muslims."
Freedom of religion in Tanzania refers to the extent to which people in Tanzania are freely able to practice their religious beliefs, taking into account both government policies and societal attitudes toward religious groups.