Religion in Bahrain

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The

Government
has placed some limitations on the exercise of this right.

Religious demography

Main article: Demographics of Bahrain § Religion

Among the

Sunni branches of Islam. The last official census (1941) showed that 52% (88,298 citizens) of the Muslim population were Shia and 48% of the Muslim population were Sunni.[5] During 1980s, unofficial sources, such as the Library of Congress Country Studies,[6] and The New York Times,[7] estimated that Sunnis were 45% of Bahraini population, while 55% of Bahraini population were Shias. The last official Bahraini document published in 2011 revealed that 51% of the country's citizens are Sunnis, while the Shi'ite population had declined to 49% of the citizen population.[8]

Foreigners, overwhelmingly from

Sikhs.[9]

Status of religious freedom

Legal and policy framework

The

Hindu temples are allowed to function freely. During the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Bahrain he announced redevelopment project for the Shrinathji (Krishna) Temple which will cost $4.2 million.[10]
The country's only synagogue has not been operational for nearly 60 years.

Holding a religious meeting without a permit is illegal; however, there were no reports of religious groups being denied a permit to gather. Unregistered Christian congregations exist, and there were no reports of the Government attempting to force unregistered congregations to register. The High Council for Islamic Affairs is charged with the review and approval of all clerical appointments within both the

Shari'a
, tribal law, and other civil codes and regulations. The number of Shi'a Shari'a judges was slightly higher than the number of their Sunni counterparts.

Although the

Church in India
, the highest official in the church.

Restrictions on religious freedom

Government policy and practice contribute to the generally free practice of religion. Members of other religious groups who practice their faith privately do so without interference from the Government and are permitted to maintain their own places of worship and display the symbols of their religion, such as crosses and statues of deities and saints. The Government funds all official religious institutions, including Shi'a and Sunni mosques, Shi'a ma`tams (religious community centers), Shi'a and Sunni waqfs (religious endowments), and the religious courts, which represent both the

Maliki
(Sunni) schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The Government permits public religious events, most notably the large annual commemorative marches by Shi'a Muslims during the Islamic months of Ramadan and Muharram.

Converts to Islam from other religious groups were not uncommon, especially in cases of marriage between Muslim men and non-Muslim women. These converts were normally welcomed into the Muslim community. On the other hand, converts from Islam to other religious groups were not well tolerated by society. It was reported that families and communities often shunned these individuals and sometimes subjected converts to physical abuse. Some of these converts believed it necessary to leave the country permanently.

During the

2011–2012 Arab Spring uprising and crackdown against Shia protest in Bahrain, "dozens" of Shia mosques have been leveled by the government according to a report in McClatchy newspapers. According to Shiite leaders interviewed by the reporter, work crews have often arrived "in the dead of night, accompanied by police and military escorts", to demolish the mosques, and in many cases, have hauled away the buildings' rubble before townspeople awake so as to leave no trace. Sheikh Khalid bin Ali bin Abdulla al Khalifa, the minister of justice and Islamic affairs for Bahrain, defended the demolitions stating: "These are not mosques. These are illegal buildings." However the McClatchy reporter found that photos taken of several mosques before their destruction by the government "showed they were well maintained, decades-old structures."[11]

The MOJIA has repeatedly denied an operating license to a congregation of the Baháʼí Faith, and it refuses to recognize the congregation; the Baháʼí community continued to gather and worship freely without government interference. While the MOJIA views the Baháʼí Faith as an inauthentic offshoot of Islam and blasphemous[citation needed], some other government ministries included Baháʼí as a religion choice in "drop-down" computer menus for citizens applying for certain government documents.

visa
restrictions. The new parish applied for a three-year resident visa for a permanent priest. By the close of the reporting period, government officials still had not notified church leaders of a final decision on the request to allow a second parish or to grant a resident visa for a permanent priest. Further requests by church officials for information went unanswered. There were no reports of religious prisoners or detainees in the country.

In February 2011, the tensions between the Sunni ruling minority and the Shi'a majority spilled over into street protests which was violently suppressed by police forces, resulting in multiple civilian deaths.[12] McClatchy Newspapers/csmonitor.com reported that as of mid-May 2011,

Authorities have held secret trials where protesters have been sentenced to death, arrested prominent mainstream opposition politicians, jailed nurses and doctors who treated injured protesters, seized the health care system that had been run primarily by Shiites, fired 1,000 Shiite professionals and canceled their pensions, detained students and teachers who took part in the protests, beat and arrested journalists, and forced the closure of the only opposition newspaper.[11]

Unnamed U.S. officials interviewed by McClatchy expressed concern over "vindictive" Sunni leadership in Bahrain and stated that the

Obama administration was "deeply worried about Bahrain's rapid downward spiral."[11]

Forced religious conversion

Bahrain has no history of engaging in forced religious conversion. Foreign nationals as well as local minorities are able to practice their religion without interference from the government or other religious groups.

Status of Jewish community

Even though the small Jewish community has been safe from attacks and vandalism. While some anti-Zionist political commentary and editorial cartoons appeared, usually linked to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, outside of a political context the Jewish minority is fully respected and allowed to operate freely. Jewish people in Bahrain regularly practice their faith privately without interference from the Government. In 2008 Bahrain named Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, a Jewish female lawmaker, ambassador to the United States.[13]

Improvements and positive developments in respect for religious freedom

Parliamentary and municipal elections were conducted in November and December 2006. Candidates associated with religion-based political societies won 32 of the 40 seats in the Council of Representatives. During the elections, candidates from religious political groups conducted their campaigns without any interference from the Government. There was one

Jewish member and one Christian member of the 40-member upper house of Parliament, the Shura Council, whose members were appointed in December 2006 by the King, following elections for the lower house. The Christian member was chosen by her colleagues to be the second deputy speaker for the Shura Council and is also one of the country's four representatives to the Arab Parliament. There was one Christian municipal council candidate in the elections, but he was defeated. In April 2007 the Bahrain Businesswomen Society initiated a public awareness campaign on family law by sponsoring a panel discussion, the first public event on the topic for several months. The issue was not raised in any significant way during the November/December 2006 elections, despite an awareness campaign by the Supreme Council for Women in the fall of 2005 and seminars by civil society groups, which highlighted the need for a family law. This was followed by public debate and rallies both in favor of and against such a law. During the reporting period, members of the Awali Community Church
visited Christian prison inmates approximately monthly, to provide clothing and Christian literature and messages from their home. Members of other churches also made periodic visits to Christian prison inmates.

2020s

The 2020 World Religions Database states 82% of the country is Muslim, 12% is Christian (primarily Roman Catholic, Protestant, Malankara Orthodox, and Mar Thoma Syrian from South India) and 6% is Hindu.[14]

Minority religious groups report that there is a good degree of tolerance in society for minority religious beliefs and traditions; there is no tolerance for conversion away from Islam.[15]

In November 2022, Pope Francis became the first Catholic pope to travel to Bahrain. He held mass in Manama for a crowd of almost 30,000 people.[16]

In 2023, the country was scored 1 out of 4 for religious freedom.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "General Tables". Bahraini Census 2010. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  2. ^ Vatican News website
  3. ^ US State Dept 2022 report
  4. ^ "Low profile but welcome: a Jewish outpost in the Gulf". The Independent. 2 Nov 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  5. ^ Qubain, Fahim Issa (1955) “Social Classes and Tensions in Bahrain.” The Middle East Journal 9, no. 3: 269–280, p. 270
  6. ^ Bahrain Country Study Library of Congress
  7. ^ Vinocur, John (25 July 1982). "1981 Plot in Bahrain linked to Iranians". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Estimates put the division in Bahrain at 55 percent Shiites and 45 percent Sunnites.
  8. ^ "وثيقة بحرينية: الشيعة أقل من النصف". Al Jazeera. 4 July 2011. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. كشفت وثيقة بحرينية رسمية حديثة أن نسبة المواطنين السنة من إجمالي مواطني البلاد تعادل 51%، في حين توقفت نسبة الطائفة الشيعية عند 49% [A recent official Bahraini document revealed that the percentage of Sunni citizens out of the country’s total citizens is 51%, while the percentage of the Shiite community stopped at 49%..]
  9. ^ "International Religious Freedom Report". US State Dept. 2011-09-13. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  10. ^ "Modi announces redevelopment project for Hindu temple in Bahrain". gulfnews.com. 25 August 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-26.
  11. ^ a b c Bahrain's Sunni rulers target Shiite mosques, By Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers, May 11, 2011
  12. ^ "Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Protesters". The New York Times Company. 2011-02-18. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  13. ^ "Muslim Country Selects Jewish Ambassador « iNPLACENEWS". Inplacenews.wordpress.com. 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
  14. ^ The ARDA website, Retrieved 2023-08-01
  15. ^ US State Dept 2022 report
  16. ^ US State Dept 2022 report
  17. ^ Freedom House website, Retrieved 2023-08-01
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