1.
International Religious Freedom
Report
[International
Religious Freedom Report,2005 By U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE]
The country
has an area of 13,948 square miles, and its population is approximately
1,388,000. An estimated 38 to 45 percent of the population is Muslim; and
between 5 and 13 percent is Christian.
The
remainder of the population follows traditional indigenous or animist
religious practices. There are few atheists.
Christians
belong to a number of groups, including the Roman Catholic Church and
various Protestant denominations. Christians are concentrated in Bissau and
other large towns. Islam is practiced most widely by the Fula and Mandinka
ethnic groups, and Muslims generally live in the north and northeast.
Practitioners of traditional religions inhabit the remainder of the country.
Virtually all Muslims are Sunni. The Ahmadiya are not confined to any
particular geographic region. Their numbers are extremely small; there is no
reliable data on number of adherents. With the 2005 banning of Ahmadiya
activities, followers have mostly returned to practicing the same form of
Sunni Islam that other Muslims in the country practice.
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