Religion
Religion in Yemen consists primarily of two principal religious groups of Islam; Sunni and Shi'a. About 52% of the Muslim population is Sunni, and 46% is Shi'a. Sunnis are primarily Shafi'i, but also include significant groups of Malikis and Hanbalis. Shi'as are primarily Zaidis, and also have significant minorities of Twelver Shi'as and Musta'ali Western Isma'ili Shi'as (see: Shia Islam in Yemen).
The Sunnis are predominantly in the south and southeast. The Zaidis are predominantly in the north and northwest, while the Jafaris and Ismailis are mostly located in the main centers of Sana'a and Ma'rib. There are mixed communities in the larger cities.
Less than 1% of Yemenis are non-Muslim, adhering to Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Atheism. There are also approximately 3,000 Christians, 400 Jews, and an extreme minority of Hindus. Neither the constitution nor other laws protect or inhibit freedom of religion; however, government policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Yemen
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“There is more religion in men’s science than there is science in their religion.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Those to whom God has imparted religion by feeling of the heart are very fortunate and are rightly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give it by feeling of the heart—without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Culture’s essential service to a religion is to destroy intellectual idolatry, the recurrent tendency in religion to replace the object of its worship with its present understanding and forms of approach to that object.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)