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:
“I read ... an article by a highly educated man wherein he told with what conscientious pains he had brought up all his children to be skeptical of everything, never to believe anything in life or religion or their own feelings without submitting it to many rational doubts, to have a persistent, thoroughly skeptical, doubting attitude toward everything.... I think he might as well have taken them out in the backyard and killed them with an ax.”
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“A chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving the host of the God of War—Mars. As such, he is as incongruous as a musket would be on the altar at Christmas. Why, then, is he there? Because he indirectly subserves the purpose attested by the cannon; because too he lends the sanction of the religion of the meek to that which practically is the abrogation of everything but brute Force.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)