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Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The 2006 census counting method included religion, so the number of adherents of the different religions are usually rough estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims accounting for 88% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians〔.〕〔.〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Religion/Islamic conservatism's revival attracts followers, worries governments )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url= http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/08/28/55639.html )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Pope Shenouda III declares to a TV station that the number of Copts in Egypt exceeds 12 million )〕 The vast majority of Muslims in Egypt are Sunni. A significant number of Sunni Muslim Egyptians also follow native Sufi orders.〔.〕 There are under fifty thousand Ahmadi Muslims. There is a minority of Mu'tazila, Shia Twelvers and Ismailism numbering a few thousands. According to the Constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree with Islamic law. Article 45 of the Constitution extends freedom of religion to the three Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), but only those three. The remainder of Egyptians, numbering between 10% and 20% of the population,〔 mostly belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Christian Church.〔〔〔〔〔 The most recent declarations, made by Pope Shenouda III and bishop Morkos of Shubra in 2008, put forward the number of Orthodox Copts in Egypt as being over 12 million. Other estimates made by church officials estimate this number to be 16 million. Protestant churches claim a membership of about 300,000 Egyptians, and the Coptic Catholic Church is estimated to have a similar membership among Egyptians.〔〔 Based on these estimates, the total number of Christians in Egypt is between 15% and 20% of a total population of 80 million Egyptians. While some government sources have claimed a percentage of around 6 to 10%,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Egypt from "HRW WORLD ATLAS" )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cairo – Religion and Faith in Modern Cairo )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Egypt, International Religious Freedom Report 2008 )〕 a number of published sources such as the Washington Institute, in addition to some of the Coptic sources, uphold that Christians represent more than 10% of the total population and claim that they actually still compose up to 15 or even 20% of the Egyptian population.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Copts and Their Political Implications in Egypt )〕〔(IPS News ) (retrieved 09-27-2008)〕〔(). ''The Washington Post''. "Estimates of the size of Egypt's Christian population vary from the low government figures of 6 to 7 million to the 12 million reported by some Christian leaders. The actual numbers may be in the 9 to 9.5 million range, out of an Egyptian population of more than 60 million." Retrieved 10-10-2008〕〔() The Christian Post. Accessed 28 September 2008.〕〔(NLG Solutions ) There is a small but historically significant non-immigrant Bahá'í population, estimated around 2000 persons,〔 and an even smaller community of Jews about 200,〔〔.〕 then a tiny number of Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic. The non-Sunni, non-Coptic communities range in size from several hundreds to a few thousand. The original Ancient Egyptian religion has disappeared in Egypt as a result of new religions being formed then introduced to Egypt. Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar Mosque, founded in 970 AD by the Fatimids as the first Islamic University in Egypt and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria established in the middle of the 1st century by Saint Mark. In Egypt, Muslims and Christians live as neighbors, sharing common history, national identity, ethnicity, race, culture, and language.〔 The Adhan (Islamic call to prayer) that is heard five times a day has the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to media and entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and is justifiably dubbed "the city of 1,000 minarets", with a significant number of church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a history of religious extremism, recently witnessing a 2006 judgement of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court, which made a clear legal distinction between "recognized religions" (i.e., Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and all other religious beliefs. This ruling effectively delegitimizes and forbids practice of all but the three Abrahamic religions, and made it necessary for non-Abrahamic religious communities to either commit perjury or be denied Egyptian identification cards (see Egyptian identification card controversy), until a 2008 Cairo court case ruled that unrecognized religious minorities may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday,〔.〕 though Copts complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis of their religion.〔.〕 Naguib Sawiris, one of Egyptians successful businessmen and one of the world's wealthiest 400 people〔.〕 is a Copt. At the same time there is a large number of private companies shared by both Muslims and Copts. ==Freedom of religion and human rights== Freedom of belief and worship are formally recognized by the Egyptian Constitution, but are effectively limited by government intervention and sectarian conflict. Some aspects of the country’s laws are heavily biased in favor of Islam and against religious minorities, most notably the country’s approximately 10 million Coptic Christians. Religions other than Islam have typically had to be deemed compatible with Sharia and petition for legal recognition.〔 Although the state provides funds for the construction of mosques and the training of imams, no such aid is extended to non-Muslim communities, whose requests for building permits are often denied or delayed. Individual adherents of minority religions also face frequent discrimination by government officials, who often deny them identity cards, birth certificates and marriage licenses. Authorities often fail to sanction individuals involved in carrying out attacks against members of minority faiths, relying instead on non-judicial procedures in order to avoid offending the Muslim majority.〔 The government also discriminates against Islamic religious minority groups, most notably Shi’a Muslims, who face open official discrimination, including being barred from admission to Al-Azhar University.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Religion in Egypt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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