Religion in Afghanistan
The official religion in Afghanistan is Islam, which is practiced by over 99% of its citizens. Sunni Islam makes up 80-89% of the total population while the remaining 10-19% are Shi'as and about 1% or less practice other religions.[1][2][3][4]
Hinduism is said to have been in Afghanistan since its existence, while Sikhs were brought by the British.[5][6] A small number of people who practice other religions may also be found in the country.
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[edit] History
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Afghanistan was not always religiously homogeneous, and Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Jews, and Greeks all left an imprint on its early history.[7] Following Alexander the Great's brief occupation, the successor state of the Seleucid Empire controlled the area until 305 BCE when they gave much of it to the Indian Maurya Empire as part of an alliance treaty. The Mauryans brought Buddhism from India and controlled southern Afghanistan until about 185 BCE when they were overthrown.
In the 7th century, the Umayyad Arab Muslims entered into the area now known as Afghanistan after decisively defeating the Sassanians in Nihawand. Following this colossal defeat, the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdegerd III, who became a hunted fugitive, fled eastward deep into Central Asia. In pursuing Yazdegerd, the route the Arabs selected to enter the area was from north-eastern Iran[8] and thereafter into Herat where they stationed a large portion of their army before advancing toward the rest of Afghanistan. The Arabs exerted considerable efforts toward propagating Islam amongst the locals.
A large number of the inhabitants of the region of northern Afghanistan accepted Islam through Umayyad missionary efforts particularly under the reign of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and Umar ibn AbdulAziz.[9] During the reign of Al-Mu'tasim Islam was generally practiced amongst most inhabitants of the region and finally under Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari, Islam was by far, the predominant religion of Kabul along with other major cities of Afghanistan. Later, the Samanids propagated Islam deep into the heart of Central Asia, as the first complete translation of the Qur'an into Persian occurred in the 9th century. Since the 9th century, Islam has dominated the country's religious landscape. Islamic leaders have entered the political sphere at various times of crisis, but rarely exercised secular authority for long.[7] The remnants of a Shahi presence in Afghanistan's eastern borders were expelled by Mahmud of Ghazni during 998 and 1030.[10]
Until the 1890s, the country's Nuristan region was known as Kafiristan (land of the kafirs) because of its inhabitants: the Nuristani, an ethnically distinctive people who practiced animism, polytheism and shamanism.[11]
[edit] Post-1979 history
The 1979 Soviet invasion in support of a communist government triggered a major intervention of religion into Afghan political conflict, and Islam united the multiethnic opposition to the atheist regime.[7] Once the Soviet-backed Marxist-style regime came to power in Afghanistan, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) moved to suppress religion. The "atheistic" and "infidel" communist PDPA imprisoned, tortured and murdered many members of the religious establishment.[12][13] After National Reconciliation talks in 1987 Islam became once again the state religion and the country removed the word "Democratic" from its official name. From 1987-1992 the country's official name was the Republic of Afghanistan[14] but today it is an Islamic Republic. For Afghans, Islam represents a potentially unifying symbolic system which offsets the divisiveness that frequently rises from the existence of a deep pride in tribal loyalties and an abounding sense of personal and family honor found in multitribal and multiethnic societies such as Afghanistan. Mosques serve not only as places of worship, but for a multitude of functions, including shelter for guests, places to meet and converse, the focus of social religious festivities and schools. Almost every Afghan has at one time during his youth studied at a mosque school; for some this is the only formal education they receive.
[edit] Minority religious groups
[edit] Shia Islam
The Shi'a Muslims make up 10-19%[1][2][3] of the total population of Afghanistan. Although there are some Sunnis amongs them, the Hazaras are predominantly Shi'a, mostly of the Twelver branch with some smaller groups who practice the Ismailism branch.[15][16] The Qizilbash Tajiks of Afghanistan have traditionally been Shi'as.[17]
[edit] Zoroastrians
According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, which provided statistics for world countries to Britannica, there are also some Zoroastrians still remaining in Afghanistan. The figures vary widely though statistics show that little over 300,000 Afghans were counted as Zoroastrians in 1970.[18]
[edit] Hindus and Sikhs
There are about 50,000 Hindus and Sikhs living in different cities but mostly in Jalalabad, Kabul, and Kandahar.[5][6] Other smaller groups include the Bahá'ís who number according to a recent estimate at approximately 400 in Afghanistan.[19] Senator Awtar Singh is the only Sikh in Afghanistan’s parliament.[20]
[edit] Bahá'í Faith
Baha'i Faith was introduced to Afghanistan in 1919 and Baha'is have been living in there since the 1880s.
[edit] Christianity
Some unconfirmed reports state that there are 500 to 8,000 Afghan Christians practicing their faith secretly in the country.[21]
[edit] Judaism
There was a small Jewish community in Afghanistan who fled the country before and after the 1979 Soviet invasion, and one individual, Zablon Simintov, still remains today.[22]
[edit] See also
- Islam in Afghanistan
- Buddhism in Afghanistan
- Bahá'í Faith in Afghanistan
- Christianity in Afghanistan
- Religious freedom in Afghanistan
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population". Pew Research Center. October 7, 2009. http://pewforum.org/Muslim/Mapping-the-Global-Muslim-Population%286%29.aspx. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ a b Miller, Tracy, ed. (October 2009) (PDF). Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population. Pew Research Center. http://pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/Muslimpopulation/Muslimpopulation.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ a b "Country Profile: Afghanistan". Library of Congress Country Studies on Afghanistan. Library of Congress. August 2005. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Afghanistan.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-03. "Religion: Virtually the entire population is Muslim. Between 80 and 85 percent of Muslims are Sunni and 15 to 19 percent, Shia."
- ^ "Afghanistan". Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/notesanddefs.html?countryName=Afghanistan&countryCode=af®ionCode=sas#2122. Retrieved 2010-09-03. "Religions: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1%"
- ^ a b Majumder, Sanjoy (September 15, 2003). "Sikhs struggle in Afghanistan". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3138282.stm. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ a b Melwani, Lavina (April 1994). "Hindus Abandon Afghanistan". New York: hinduismtoday.com. http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1994/4/1994-4-02.shtml. Retrieved 2010-09-03. "January Violence Is the Last Straw-After 10 Years of War, Virtually All 50,000 Hindus have Fled, Forsaking"
- ^ a b c "Afghanistan". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/countries/afghanistan. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
- ^ Arabic As a Minority Language By Jonathan Owens, pg. 181
- ^ The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith, By Thomas Walker Arnold, pg. 183
- ^ Afghanistan: a new history By Martin Ewans Edition: 2, illustrated Published by Routledge, 2002 Page 15 ISBN 0-4152-9826-1
- ^ Klimberg, Max (October 1, 2004). "NURISTAN". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online Edition ed.). United States: Columbia University. http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/ot_grp6/ot_nuristan_20041001.html.
- ^ "History of Afghanistan". History of Nations. 2004. http://www.historyofnations.net/asia/afghanistan.html. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
- ^ "COMMUNISM, REBELLION, AND SOVIET INTERVENTION". United Srares: Library of Congress Country Studies. 1997. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0028). Retrieved 2010-12-09.
- ^ Willem Vogelsang. The Afghans. http://books.google.com/books?id=9kfJ6MlMsJQC&pg=RA1-PA319&dq=PDPA+Kabul+Safe&hl=no#PRA1-PA319,M1. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- ^ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica - Hazara (Race)
- ^ Ehsan Yarshater, ed. "HAZĀRA". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online Edition ed.). United States: Columbia University. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazara-1. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
- ^ "Qizilbash". United States: Library of Congress Country Studies. 1997. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+af0049). Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/CDC/afghanistan.html.
- ^ "Afghanistan - International Religious Freedom Report 2007". The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affair. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90225.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
- ^ http://www.sikhnet.com/news/afghanistan-dwindling-sikh-community-struggles-endure-kabul
- ^ USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2009). "International Religious Freedom Report 2009". http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127362.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
- ^ Washingtonpost.com - Afghan Jew Becomes Country's One and Only - N.C. Aizenman
