Ertra - Religion

Religion

Eritrea has two dominant religions, Christianity and Islam. Various approximations have estimated that 62.5% are Christians (mostly followers of Orthodox Christianity and, to a lesser extent, Roman Catholicism) and 36.5％ of the population is Sunni Muslim. The Christians are primarily members of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, which is the local Oriental Orthodox church, while considerable groups of Roman Catholics (including Italian Eritreans), Protestants, and other denominations also exist. Most Muslims follow Sunni Islam.

Since May 2002, the government of Eritrea has officially recognized the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Sunni Islam, Catholicism, and the Evangelical Lutheran church. All other faiths and denominations are required to undergo a registration process. Among other things, the government's registration system requires religious groups to submit personal information on their membership to be allowed to worship.

The Eritrean government is against reformed or radical versions of its established religions. Therefore, radical forms of Islam (viz, Salafism), Jehovah's Witnesses, the Bahá'í Faith, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and numerous other non-Protestant Evangelical denominations are not registered and cannot worship freely. Three named men are known to have been imprisoned since 1994. Additionally, on 28 June 2009, police raided a private home where Jehovah's Witnesses were meeting. 23 were arrested including children as young as two years old. Some of the women and children were later released. None have been charged officially or given access to the judicial process. As of 29 July 2010, 52 Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned in Eritrea for conducting secret religious gatherings, engaging in religious activity, and for refusing to serve in the national service.

In its 2006 religious freedom report, the U.S. State Department named Eritrea a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) for the third year in a row.