Religion
- See also: Islam in Bangladesh, Hinduism in Bangladesh, Buddhism in Bangladesh, Christianity in Bangladesh
According to the 2001 census, the religious profile of the population is: Islam 89.7%, Hinduism 9.2%, Buddhism 0.7%, Christianity 0.3% and others (such as Animists and non-religious) 0.1%. The majority of the Muslims are Sunni consisting of 95% of the Muslim population, and the remaining are Shi'a and other sects.
Hindus constituted 18.5% of the population in 1961, but their population declined significantly during the Bangladesh Liberation War due to the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities carried out by the Pakistan Army. As a result, millions of Hindus fled to India and their population in Bangladesh fell to 13.5% by 1974. Since then, the Hindu population has not grown as much as the Muslim population, hence although the Hindu population has increased marginally, the Hindu % has fallen.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Bangladesh
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“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)
“All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)