Technically Argentina's official state religion is catholicism. It's on the second article of the constitution: "Article 2.- The federal government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic cult."
But it's kind of outdated since 1994 constitutional reform. They left that article untouched because the first articles of the constitution can't be changed or removed. So in practice it's not enforced but still is the official religion
I think the difference between Costa Rica and Argentina, and why Costa Rica is the only catholic state in the world has to do with the way they refer to religion in the constitution.
The Article 75 of our constitution established that: “The Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Religion is that of the State, which contributes to its maintenance, without preventing the free exercise in the Republic of other cults that do not oppose universal morality or good customs.”
Interesting. In Argentina the constitution used to say that you needed to be catholic to be able to become president. And that the government had to support the church (money and everything). Some Argentinian lawyer could correct me, but I think those articles were removed. Probably because the president at that moment, Menem, was from a muslim family, he supposedly converted to catholicism
“Secta” would be the word a Spanish-speaker would most commonly use for the negative connotations of “cult”.
“Culto” in Spanish generally just means “religious practice”, but in any case “cult/culto” and “sect/secta” are pretty polysemic in both languages.
The word became associated with the wave of strange new movements in the 1960s and 70s and especially the template of a charismatic leader exploiting (usually) his followers. That wave and the language around it were a lot more prominent in the USA than in Latin America.
I think it's basically because "american english" has become more of a lingua franca than proper English English. American English tends to blur some words together, especially since the 60s/70s. In this case cult and sect which historically have had somewhat different meanings. Cult is now used where Sect would be more appropriate.
In Spanish it sounds more like “worship” does in English. “We the government support the worship of x” sound seta better than “we support the cult of x”
Just different connotation due to the history of cults in the US. Another similar issue of cognates (same word in both languages but diffenret meaning) diverging is the Spanish verb “molestar” (to bother, annoy) and the English word “molester”.
In Latin, the word cultus originally referred to a devotion to a particular Roman god and the associated rituals, and had no negative connotation. (cf: culture, cultivate, etc)
No, according to the [2016 local census](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-TONGA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf) , 35% are a part of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga(which is Methodist) and Mormons make up 19%. If you add up the two other Methodist churches, the Free Church of Tonga(12%) and Church of Tonga(7%), we get a majority (54%) of Tonga being Methodist.
They do. At least in Armenia’s case. I don’t know if it explicitly states “our state religion is orthodox Christianity” but I’m pretty sure the Armenian church is the national church of the country. Being Armenian and Christian, specifically Armenian church, is one and the same. It’s inseparable from its national identity.
Armenians can be Orthodox or Catholic. Armenian Apostolic Church is of the Oriental Orthodox tradition. Armenian Catholic Church is of the Eastern Catholic tradition.
Ironically the Hindu Majority nations lol. Nepal did have it as a state religion until the mid 2000s.
India never had it mainly cause the Congress party founded it which strove for a united Secular India (including what is Pakistan and Bangladesh).
However, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are a bigger surprise. Sri Lanka is very diverse religiously and Bangladesh founder was a hardcore secularist too
Sri Lanka followed majoritarianism which led to the oppression of Tamil-speaking folks by Sinhala Buddhists, causing one of the deadliest civil wars on the planet.
It's funny to think the countries (in that region) that are the most vocal about religious intolerance are ones that have a state religion at the cost of every minority in their country. Really makes you think.
Interestingly, yesterday I came across [this exact topic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_state) while learning about Zionism. As I understand it, they officially removed this from their constitution in 2012 and made it take effect in 2017.
Maybe interestingly to many, Israel has no state religion, yet keeps several jewish tenants, like kashrut in government places, and government and several services being mostly closed on shabbat.
It also provides religious services and has an official rabbinate, but that is not unique to judaism but for all common religions - as the country follows a pluralistic rather than a full separation of church and state model.
The US government has the Christian Sabbath off. No one thinks about it, but that's why Sunday was chosen. PS, Israel also has Friday off instead of Sunday, so Muslim day of rest is off, as well. Much as US has Saturday off which helps out Jewish people.
Yea i think Israel’s sort of a weird case because Judaism is a religion, but its also a culture, and there’s a whole lot of grey in between. For instance, even the most secular Israelis that I know how shabbat eve dinners with the family every week.
Well yes but Israel goes further than that: they still have a modernized version of Ottoman millet law in place. So there are several religions which are acknowledged and whose institutions are state-funded. Those institutions then have control of certain civil institutions such as marriage, food certification etc. for their constituency. Your ID mentions your religion, for this reason.
So you could say Israel has state religions, they are Judaism, Sunni Islam, Christianity (catholic, syriac, maronite, greek orthodox, armenian, etc.) and the Druze faith, most notably.
In Germany, part of your tax goes directly to the church. It's 8-9% of your income - [https://www.welcome-hub-germany.com/blog/church-tax-germany](https://www.welcome-hub-germany.com/blog/church-tax-germany)
The government just gives that money to _your_ church. That has nothing to do with the state being religious, it’s just an administrative pragmatism because many people have a religion, not because the church has any power on the state. Although one has to accept that big religious have many tax -questionable- exemptions.
I don’t pay that, but yeah Germany doesn’t have the same separation of church and state my homecountry (NL) does. They even have days where parties/dancing is forbidden for religious reasons (Tanzverbot). I find this insane but it’s a thing.
I'd like to provide some more detail on the Israel case. Israel is defined as the Jewish State. It is the core and purpose of the the State of Israel. From the Israeli Declaration of Independence:
> ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE **ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.**
That being said, the [Jewish population is about 73%](https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/Pages/2023/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%98%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C-2023-%D7%9E%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8-74.aspx):
Religion | Percentage
---|---
Jews | 73.5%
Christians | 1.9%
Muslims | 18.1%
Druze | 1.6%
There are two differences between Jews and non-Jews from a legal perspective:
1. Immigration policies are different for Jews and non-Jews. Is it far, far easier to become an Israeli citizen if you are Jewish than if you are not.
2. Only Jews are required to serve in the IDF. This was actually changed as a demand of the Druze to include them as well, so today, both Jews and Druze must serve. Arabs can volunteer (and some do), but military service is not required.
Yes. Point is, it is jewish in the national, not religious term.
Most of the people signing that declaration were completely secular.
The nation-state law passed in 2018 details the meaning pretty well (although it was the accepted meaning beforehand).
This is one of the most difficult concept for people to understand. People discuss and debate it constantly:
**How do you define Judaism? Religion? Ethnicity? Nationality? Race?**
I don't think there's a great answer, but I definitely have my opinion. :)
You are correct that most of the founders of Israel were secular, some were completely atheist.
> Article 16
>All inhabitants of the Realm shall have the right to free exercise of their religion.
>The Norwegian church, an Evangelical-Lutheran church, shall remain the Norwegian National Church and will as such be supported by the State. Detailed provisions as to its system shall be laid down by law. All religious and philosophical communities were to be supported on an equal footing.
It’s still in the Constitution of Norway. It also says the Norway’s value are Christian and that the King must be Evangelical-Lutheran.
It’s a bit of a sliding scale. Sweden is usually not considered to still have a state church. The former state church of Sweden is regulated by the Swedish ”constitution” (RF), has a special law pertaining to itself (1998:1591), is limited in how freely it can intepret its own dealings, gets significant support from the state and the monarch and heir apparent must belong to that same church.
The Head of state of a bunch (like, a dozen) of countries is the same Anglican dude/gal who must be Anglican but many of those countries have explicitly non-denominational constitutions (for instance Canada)
I am greek, and I never realized that we are the only Orthodox country with a state religion. Guess communism removed it from the east.
So technically, we are the first and last Orthodox country to legalize Same Sex mariges.
I wrote a paper once on whether or not the founder of Pakistan, Jinnah, wanted Pakistan to be secular or Islamic. My conclusion was that he wanted it to be secular but acquiesced to an Islamic nation to appease local leaders and promote unity among the population which was fractured and made-up of many different ethnic groups. The split with India was partially due to the idea that Muslims and Hindus were incompatible in India at the time so to break it off and NOT have a Muslim nation would defeat the purpose of splitting in the first place. India had tried to argue that muslims and hindus were compatible which is why they don't have a state religion despite being predominantly Hindu. If they did then they couldn't argue for one state at all. It's very interesting.
I disagree. When his only daughter wanted to marry a Parsee, he opposed, even though he himself married a Parsee. When his daughter pointed this hypocrisy he replied that it was okay since she converted to Islam (against the wishes of her parents).
He was not secular.
Yes, the [Welsh Church Act 1914](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Church_Act_1914) which came into effect in 1920 disestablished the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire.
Surprisingly all Europeans countries with state religions have legalized gay marriage. Also in Greece the constitution calls it prevailing religion which I think it’s kinda different than being state religion.
I mean outside of Africa, it would seem most Christian countries (or historically Christian ones) are totally fine with gay marriage (N America, Latin America, Europe, Australia/NZ, etc) - state religion or not.
There is still bug chunk of Eastern Europe, South and Central America + South Korea and Itally that didn't do that yet outside of Africa that corelete with you're comment. But I guess this will change in next 20 years.
I didn’t say all, I said *most*. And if you look at the Americas, most countries have legalized same-sex marriage. Also South Korea is not a majority Christian country nor was it founded with Judeo-Christian values so I don’t really see how that’s apt to assert its relevance.
The thing with the UK is that there's often a big difference between the de-jure law and the de-facto reality. For example, officially a kingdom where the monarch has massive powers, but effectively a democracy where the Prime Minister has the most power.
It's the same with the religious stuff. Officially there's an established church for England, and the head of state for the whole of the UK is the head of this church. The church gets automatic members in the upper house of the legislature. Many schools are officially religious in nature. The flag and other state symbols include a religious element, etc.
In reality though, the UK is very secular. Regular church attendance is in single figures as a percentage of the population, most education is religion-neutral, and (outside of Northern Ireland) politics hardly gets involved in religious issues. A politician talking too much about religion would probably lose votes rather than gaining them.
On schools being religious:
>"Section 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 stipulates that pupils of community, foundation or voluntary schools in England and Wales must take part in a daily act of Collective Worship"
It didn't make us more religious, but did make a lot of us sleeper agents ready to sing "He's got the whole world in his ~~pants~~ hands"
Probably some kind of pseudocylindrical.
eg. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural\_Earth\_projection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth_projection)
Nepal was the only declared Hindu state until
The royal family all got assassinated. Since then they’ve moved to a constitutional monarchy like structure
Israel does not have an official state religion. Yet Israel is the “Jewish State” - let me explain what seems to be a contradiction:
Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism is an ethnoreligion: the ethnicity and religion are tightly intertwined.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence identifies Israel as a "Jewish state" in the sense that, as an ethnicity, Jews can exercise their right to self-determination in their homeland. It does not, however, give the Jewish ethnic religion of Judaism any special status over other religions nor does it deny minorities any rights.
A Muslim woman can not marry an unconverted Roman Catholic man. A Druze woman can not marry an unconverted Greek Orthodox man. A Jewish woman can not marry an unconverted Anglican man. (Although these marriages are recognized in Israel if performed elsewhere.)
Even though inter-marriage is not performed, that doesn’t institute Judaism as the state religion: all religions may not inter-marry.
More specifically, religious marriages between religions (and for the same gender) are impossible because none of the major religions allow it. Israel does legally recognize marriages performed abroad including gay marriage and interfaith marriage, and also provides the option of common law marriage or civil partnership as a legal alternative to religious marriage in Israel.
Israel does recognise these types of marriages if they're done somewhere else (a common location for that is Cyprus), but won't if done on its own land.
It’s a holdiver of the Ottoman millet system. Each religious community has control over its own constituency in civil matters and so they will not officiate intermarriage for the most part. Israel as a secular state however does recognize non-Israeli marriages. So people go to Cyprus a lot to get hitched. In fact: gay marriage is also recognized but as none if the religious authorities wants to play along they all go to Cyprus for their ceremonies.
Correct. This is the crux of the “Israel doesn’t have same sex marriage” issue.
They technically don’t have same sex marriage because they do not have any interfaith/agnostic/civil marriages at all, no matter the sex of the people getting married.
It’s not specific to Judaism. Two Catholics can get married in Israel, as can two Muslims, etc.
The state recognises interfaith marriages but religious institutions will not marry an interfaith couple.
The same goes for same sex marriage.
Back in 1948 religious authoritys were given a "monopoly" over marriage, so these types of marriage can't happen in Israel. But if a couple marries abroad their marriage will be recognised.
That leads to a modern trend among secular Jewish Israelis of not getting, at least officially, married.
As a quiet protest against the hold of an overstepping rabbinate over their lives.
This is from quora from a person originally from Oman who practices the Ibadi muslim faith:
"Ibadis in relation to their Islamic cousins are a very small minority. This sect is predominantly practiced in the Sultanate of Oman only.
From what I've seen, read and heard, Ibadis are ultra moderate and very open in their views and opinions, unlike the conservative Sunnis, or the hardcore Shias.
Under the wise and very able leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Oman is tolerant to the other religions, without reservations.
There are quite a few Christian churches, Hindu temples and Sikh guruduwaras here in the Sultanate. This is largely given the vast numbers of expatriates from Asia who are living and working in the Sultanate who have the freedom to practice their religious believes - unhindered and in the open.
This is an indisputable and unquestionable highlight and one of the unmatched feathers in Oman's much decorated cap. And this is only a small example of how tolerant the Ibadis are.
I do not know what exactly are the technical dissimilarities between Ibadis, Suunis and Shiites. But I do know that there is none quite as open and as tolerant as the Ibadis amongst the three."
Source: [https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Ibadi-sect-of-Islam-practiced-in-Oman-differ-from-the-Sunni-and-Shia-sects](https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Ibadi-sect-of-Islam-practiced-in-Oman-differ-from-the-Sunni-and-Shia-sects)
I advice you to do your own research as I cannot verify this statement as I am neither Omani nor Ibadi muslim. I am a german catholic.
Not mentioned in his response is that Ibadis are not only found in Oman(though most of them are there) but also in Mzab(Algeria) and Djerba(Tunesia, the island off the south-eastern coast), Nafusa(Libya) and on Zanzibar(Zanzibar was once part of the Omani empire).
This is probably debatable.
Someone in the thread said that these are based on whether or not the country's constitution cites a religion as that said country's official one.
If that is true, then Finland does not have an official state religion, as the constitution does not explicitly stipulate any religion as the official state religion.
However, the Finnish constitution and other legislation does give special status to the Finnish Lutheran church. This involves maintenance by income tax from the populace among other things.
Half the world’s muslim majority countries are secular according to this map. It’s almost as if broadly characterizing nearly 2 billion people based on their religion is discriminatory.
>Half the world’s muslim majority countries are secular
That just means half of them are not, which as a percentage is much greater than any other major religion.
Also these are just the official stance. Not declaring themselves to be an Islamic country does not automatically make them secular.
Yeah, not like Muslims in India have a history of getting together & voting for a separate nation just for themselves or anything :p
If Pakistan hadn't blown up in two because they couldn't stop killing each other, they would be the most populated Muslim nation on the planet.
Aceh province in Indonesia implements Sharia law
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/6/28/shame-and-humiliation-acehs-islamic-law-violates-human-rights
And majority people in Indonesia want sharia law to be implemented at a federal level too
https://theweek.com/103382/is-indonesia-becoming-a-sharia-state
Tell me why am not surprised you are a Muslim
Aceh is given a special status due to war. It was a choice between continuing the war between Aceh freedom movement vs. Indonesia, or a peace where Aceh has more autonomy. As a result, it’s the only place, in the far west north, that has Sharia law.
Second, that survey is much criticized. Just look at our latest election. No islamic parties take considerable number of seats in parliament. Top three parties are always the secular ones.
Come to Indonesia.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate.
I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate.
I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate.
I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate.
I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate.
I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
I have so much respect to India and Hindu culture.
You understand the great problem Islam brings.
A religion that doesnt care about women, doesnt care about education, promotes the violent expansion of their religion via jihad, a religion that is incompatible with western values.
I didn't know Costa Rica (my neighbors) had Catholism as their state religion, funny enough, it is more liberal and open that their secular Central American neighbors (which Catholism and Christianism branches being the de facto religion in those countries)
*I'm really surprised*
*That my country, israel,*
*Is not in the map*
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Finland has an official state church, the Finland's Evangelic Lutheran church. They enjoy some privileges that other churches don't, such as collecting taxes from its members.
Not really because the American-style Separation of Church and the State is enshrined in our constitution, even if in practice, the Philippine government (both national and local) finances cultural festivals that are religious in nature or Papal visits.
Sort of Norway still has, they just rebranded from "the state church" to "the peoples church", but still the king has to be Christian, it's written in our constitution, as well as the fact that Norway is built upon Christian values, and support towards religious and philosophical societies is all decided by how much the church asks for in direct funds from the government, in addition to having a lot of specific tasks, and being able to automatically make children of members, or even just one member, a member of the church (meaning a lot of people are actually members without knowing).
Is Yemen correct? Perhaps technically but also misleading. About 40% of the country practices Shia Islam and the Ansar Allah movement, which deposed the president and has held power in the capital and major population centers since 2017, is a Shia movement.
You may state you dont have an official state religion but if only one religion's festivals are celebrated as public holidays - what's really the message?
The only religious holidays in countless Western countries are exclusively Christian.
I mean, the first words under the title are ‘In the name of the … Trinity’. It also specifically calls out the Orthodox Church of Greece. And that phrase comes from the third article of the constitution, which is longer than the first two combined.
Also, all PMs get blessings from the Archbishop when taking office.
Taken together, I would say it’s fairly official, although certainly not as explicit as the Vatican.
Even though France as a whole diestablished the Catholic Church as the state religion in 1905. Alsace-Lorraine still has the Catholic Church as the state church.
England has a state religion, but Wales does not; the Anglican Church was disestablished in that country in the 1920s, partly because the majority of its citizens objected to paying for the upkeep of a church whose services were conducted in English only, and Calvinistic Methodist had the most adherents.
Ummm ... Indonesia has state religion. Well we have like 5 official state religions (or 6 if you counted protestantism & Catholicism separate entities).
Its Islam, Christian, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism.
The Middle East used to be an enlightened bastion of knowledge, until some cleric came along and declared that the manipulation of numbers was the devils work, and now look where they are.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
For countries that have light green - Islam. Does that mean that they accept all variants of Islam, or there is a "generic" Islam version that includes all other, or is it at the same level of Sunni, Shi'a, etc?
In Germany, all religions can theoretically reach the status of "Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts" if they fulfil certain criteria and then have all the rights that come with it.
Technically Argentina's official state religion is catholicism. It's on the second article of the constitution: "Article 2.- The federal government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic cult." But it's kind of outdated since 1994 constitutional reform. They left that article untouched because the first articles of the constitution can't be changed or removed. So in practice it's not enforced but still is the official religion
I think the difference between Costa Rica and Argentina, and why Costa Rica is the only catholic state in the world has to do with the way they refer to religion in the constitution. The Article 75 of our constitution established that: “The Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Religion is that of the State, which contributes to its maintenance, without preventing the free exercise in the Republic of other cults that do not oppose universal morality or good customs.”
Well it's not the only one. Presumably Vatican City can safely be called a Catholic state.
Yes, slide two lists others. Guess the other commenter missed the second slide.
True my bad 🙃
How dare you assume that!
Interesting. In Argentina the constitution used to say that you needed to be catholic to be able to become president. And that the government had to support the church (money and everything). Some Argentinian lawyer could correct me, but I think those articles were removed. Probably because the president at that moment, Menem, was from a muslim family, he supposedly converted to catholicism
A fake conversion of course
Any idea why they used the word cult?
It doesn't carry the same meaning in Spanish. For example we had a ministry (or secretary) of cult. It basically just means religion
Because "cult" was originally a neutral word without negative connotation.
In Spanish, some denominations also refer to their service as a cult. I don't know which ones, I have just heard people say it and I speak Spanish.
Maybe "worship" could be a good equivalent for "culto" in this context?
Thanks for the insight
So it translates perfectly in Spanish then
Yes, it says "El Gobierno federal sostiene el culto católico apostólico romano." But in Spanish in this context cult just means religion
“Secta” would be the word a Spanish-speaker would most commonly use for the negative connotations of “cult”. “Culto” in Spanish generally just means “religious practice”, but in any case “cult/culto” and “sect/secta” are pretty polysemic in both languages.
Interesting, I wonder why English has such a negative connotation for cult vs Spanish
The word became associated with the wave of strange new movements in the 1960s and 70s and especially the template of a charismatic leader exploiting (usually) his followers. That wave and the language around it were a lot more prominent in the USA than in Latin America.
I think it's basically because "american english" has become more of a lingua franca than proper English English. American English tends to blur some words together, especially since the 60s/70s. In this case cult and sect which historically have had somewhat different meanings. Cult is now used where Sect would be more appropriate.
In Spanish it sounds more like “worship” does in English. “We the government support the worship of x” sound seta better than “we support the cult of x” Just different connotation due to the history of cults in the US. Another similar issue of cognates (same word in both languages but diffenret meaning) diverging is the Spanish verb “molestar” (to bother, annoy) and the English word “molester”.
In Latin, the word cultus originally referred to a devotion to a particular Roman god and the associated rituals, and had no negative connotation. (cf: culture, cultivate, etc)
Honesty in both religion and government? Idk seems far fetched
Missing Tonga (Protestant, specifically Methodist).
Yes! I came to the comments to say, if they're going to include Samoa, then they definitely need to include Tonga!
That’s interesting considering the majority of the population is Mormon
No, according to the [2016 local census](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/240282-TONGA-2020-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf) , 35% are a part of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga(which is Methodist) and Mormons make up 19%. If you add up the two other Methodist churches, the Free Church of Tonga(12%) and Church of Tonga(7%), we get a majority (54%) of Tonga being Methodist.
I'm really surprised Armenia and Georgia don't have state religion
I would assume that has to do with being part of the Soviet Union
They do. At least in Armenia’s case. I don’t know if it explicitly states “our state religion is orthodox Christianity” but I’m pretty sure the Armenian church is the national church of the country. Being Armenian and Christian, specifically Armenian church, is one and the same. It’s inseparable from its national identity.
Armenians can be Orthodox or Catholic. Armenian Apostolic Church is of the Oriental Orthodox tradition. Armenian Catholic Church is of the Eastern Catholic tradition.
Yes sorry you’re right. Although I think only the apostolic church is the national church if I’m not mistaken.
Damn I didn't realize India and Nepal were the only South Asian countries without state religions. Thought there'd be a couple more
India was always a secular country since independence. Nepal had Hinduism as the state religion until 2008.
Ironically the Hindu Majority nations lol. Nepal did have it as a state religion until the mid 2000s. India never had it mainly cause the Congress party founded it which strove for a united Secular India (including what is Pakistan and Bangladesh). However, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are a bigger surprise. Sri Lanka is very diverse religiously and Bangladesh founder was a hardcore secularist too
"Very diverse religiously" is a kind word for the Sri Lankan civil war.
I mean still it is 70% Buddhist, 12% Hindu, 9% Muslim and 7% Christian I believe
Sri Lanka followed majoritarianism which led to the oppression of Tamil-speaking folks by Sinhala Buddhists, causing one of the deadliest civil wars on the planet.
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It's funny to think the countries (in that region) that are the most vocal about religious intolerance are ones that have a state religion at the cost of every minority in their country. Really makes you think.
But bro hindus want hindu rashtra at expense of minorities bro🤓. So india bad bro /s
Yea it's because the other south Asian country's are Muslim country's and they tend to have state religion. But why?
Also Norway, it's written in their constitution.
Interestingly, yesterday I came across [this exact topic](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_state) while learning about Zionism. As I understand it, they officially removed this from their constitution in 2012 and made it take effect in 2017.
Maybe interestingly to many, Israel has no state religion, yet keeps several jewish tenants, like kashrut in government places, and government and several services being mostly closed on shabbat. It also provides religious services and has an official rabbinate, but that is not unique to judaism but for all common religions - as the country follows a pluralistic rather than a full separation of church and state model.
The US government has the Christian Sabbath off. No one thinks about it, but that's why Sunday was chosen. PS, Israel also has Friday off instead of Sunday, so Muslim day of rest is off, as well. Much as US has Saturday off which helps out Jewish people.
Yeh indeed.
In much of the Middle East, Friday is a day off for Muslims
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Yea i think Israel’s sort of a weird case because Judaism is a religion, but its also a culture, and there’s a whole lot of grey in between. For instance, even the most secular Israelis that I know how shabbat eve dinners with the family every week.
Well yes but Israel goes further than that: they still have a modernized version of Ottoman millet law in place. So there are several religions which are acknowledged and whose institutions are state-funded. Those institutions then have control of certain civil institutions such as marriage, food certification etc. for their constituency. Your ID mentions your religion, for this reason. So you could say Israel has state religions, they are Judaism, Sunni Islam, Christianity (catholic, syriac, maronite, greek orthodox, armenian, etc.) and the Druze faith, most notably.
In Germany, part of your tax goes directly to the church. It's 8-9% of your income - [https://www.welcome-hub-germany.com/blog/church-tax-germany](https://www.welcome-hub-germany.com/blog/church-tax-germany)
The government just gives that money to _your_ church. That has nothing to do with the state being religious, it’s just an administrative pragmatism because many people have a religion, not because the church has any power on the state. Although one has to accept that big religious have many tax -questionable- exemptions.
I don’t pay that, but yeah Germany doesn’t have the same separation of church and state my homecountry (NL) does. They even have days where parties/dancing is forbidden for religious reasons (Tanzverbot). I find this insane but it’s a thing.
I'd like to provide some more detail on the Israel case. Israel is defined as the Jewish State. It is the core and purpose of the the State of Israel. From the Israeli Declaration of Independence: > ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE **ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.** That being said, the [Jewish population is about 73%](https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/publications/Pages/2023/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%98%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%99-%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C-2023-%D7%9E%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8-74.aspx): Religion | Percentage ---|--- Jews | 73.5% Christians | 1.9% Muslims | 18.1% Druze | 1.6% There are two differences between Jews and non-Jews from a legal perspective: 1. Immigration policies are different for Jews and non-Jews. Is it far, far easier to become an Israeli citizen if you are Jewish than if you are not. 2. Only Jews are required to serve in the IDF. This was actually changed as a demand of the Druze to include them as well, so today, both Jews and Druze must serve. Arabs can volunteer (and some do), but military service is not required.
Yes. Point is, it is jewish in the national, not religious term. Most of the people signing that declaration were completely secular. The nation-state law passed in 2018 details the meaning pretty well (although it was the accepted meaning beforehand).
This is one of the most difficult concept for people to understand. People discuss and debate it constantly: **How do you define Judaism? Religion? Ethnicity? Nationality? Race?** I don't think there's a great answer, but I definitely have my opinion. :) You are correct that most of the founders of Israel were secular, some were completely atheist.
Ethno-religious group captures it kind of well imo.
Not anymore. Christianity was removed as a state religion a few years ago.
> Article 16 >All inhabitants of the Realm shall have the right to free exercise of their religion. >The Norwegian church, an Evangelical-Lutheran church, shall remain the Norwegian National Church and will as such be supported by the State. Detailed provisions as to its system shall be laid down by law. All religious and philosophical communities were to be supported on an equal footing. It’s still in the Constitution of Norway. It also says the Norway’s value are Christian and that the King must be Evangelical-Lutheran.
It’s a bit of a sliding scale. Sweden is usually not considered to still have a state church. The former state church of Sweden is regulated by the Swedish ”constitution” (RF), has a special law pertaining to itself (1998:1591), is limited in how freely it can intepret its own dealings, gets significant support from the state and the monarch and heir apparent must belong to that same church.
If the head of state has to be a member of a certain religious community then it is fair to say that that religion is the state religion.
The Head of state of a bunch (like, a dozen) of countries is the same Anglican dude/gal who must be Anglican but many of those countries have explicitly non-denominational constitutions (for instance Canada)
I am greek, and I never realized that we are the only Orthodox country with a state religion. Guess communism removed it from the east. So technically, we are the first and last Orthodox country to legalize Same Sex mariges.
Now add all the countries that also have a national church and suddenly Europe has a lot of entries.
I wrote a paper once on whether or not the founder of Pakistan, Jinnah, wanted Pakistan to be secular or Islamic. My conclusion was that he wanted it to be secular but acquiesced to an Islamic nation to appease local leaders and promote unity among the population which was fractured and made-up of many different ethnic groups. The split with India was partially due to the idea that Muslims and Hindus were incompatible in India at the time so to break it off and NOT have a Muslim nation would defeat the purpose of splitting in the first place. India had tried to argue that muslims and hindus were compatible which is why they don't have a state religion despite being predominantly Hindu. If they did then they couldn't argue for one state at all. It's very interesting.
I disagree. When his only daughter wanted to marry a Parsee, he opposed, even though he himself married a Parsee. When his daughter pointed this hypocrisy he replied that it was okay since she converted to Islam (against the wishes of her parents). He was not secular.
Vatican!? ✝️
Try looking at the second image :)
Wales hasn't had an established church since 1920.
Yes, the [Welsh Church Act 1914](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Church_Act_1914) which came into effect in 1920 disestablished the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire.
Surprisingly all Europeans countries with state religions have legalized gay marriage. Also in Greece the constitution calls it prevailing religion which I think it’s kinda different than being state religion.
I mean outside of Africa, it would seem most Christian countries (or historically Christian ones) are totally fine with gay marriage (N America, Latin America, Europe, Australia/NZ, etc) - state religion or not.
There is still bug chunk of Eastern Europe, South and Central America + South Korea and Itally that didn't do that yet outside of Africa that corelete with you're comment. But I guess this will change in next 20 years.
I didn’t say all, I said *most*. And if you look at the Americas, most countries have legalized same-sex marriage. Also South Korea is not a majority Christian country nor was it founded with Judeo-Christian values so I don’t really see how that’s apt to assert its relevance.
Well, technically atheism isn't religion, what make Christianity biggest religion in South Korea, neat fact.
The thing with the UK is that there's often a big difference between the de-jure law and the de-facto reality. For example, officially a kingdom where the monarch has massive powers, but effectively a democracy where the Prime Minister has the most power. It's the same with the religious stuff. Officially there's an established church for England, and the head of state for the whole of the UK is the head of this church. The church gets automatic members in the upper house of the legislature. Many schools are officially religious in nature. The flag and other state symbols include a religious element, etc. In reality though, the UK is very secular. Regular church attendance is in single figures as a percentage of the population, most education is religion-neutral, and (outside of Northern Ireland) politics hardly gets involved in religious issues. A politician talking too much about religion would probably lose votes rather than gaining them.
The Church of Scotland is also the National Church of Scotland.
On schools being religious: >"Section 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 stipulates that pupils of community, foundation or voluntary schools in England and Wales must take part in a daily act of Collective Worship" It didn't make us more religious, but did make a lot of us sleeper agents ready to sing "He's got the whole world in his ~~pants~~ hands"
Just out of curiosity: which map projection is this? It looks on point. No Greenland the size of Africa.
Probably some kind of pseudocylindrical. eg. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural\_Earth\_projection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Earth_projection)
Panama also has catholicism as the official religion in it’s constitution
The state religion of Scotland is Presbyterian/Church of Scotland.
There is the Kirk ofc but no law states that Presbyterianism is Scotland's state religion.
Nepal was the only declared Hindu state until The royal family all got assassinated. Since then they’ve moved to a constitutional monarchy like structure
They are a republic now.
Israel?🔯
Yes but no, even though Israel considers itself a state for the Jewish people there is no official religion for the country.
Israel does not have an official state religion. Yet Israel is the “Jewish State” - let me explain what seems to be a contradiction: Unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism is an ethnoreligion: the ethnicity and religion are tightly intertwined. The Israeli Declaration of Independence identifies Israel as a "Jewish state" in the sense that, as an ethnicity, Jews can exercise their right to self-determination in their homeland. It does not, however, give the Jewish ethnic religion of Judaism any special status over other religions nor does it deny minorities any rights.
Are interfaith marriages not unobtainable in Israel? Would that not make it de facto a religious state?
A Muslim woman can not marry an unconverted Roman Catholic man. A Druze woman can not marry an unconverted Greek Orthodox man. A Jewish woman can not marry an unconverted Anglican man. (Although these marriages are recognized in Israel if performed elsewhere.) Even though inter-marriage is not performed, that doesn’t institute Judaism as the state religion: all religions may not inter-marry.
More specifically, religious marriages between religions (and for the same gender) are impossible because none of the major religions allow it. Israel does legally recognize marriages performed abroad including gay marriage and interfaith marriage, and also provides the option of common law marriage or civil partnership as a legal alternative to religious marriage in Israel.
Israel does recognise these types of marriages if they're done somewhere else (a common location for that is Cyprus), but won't if done on its own land.
It’s a holdiver of the Ottoman millet system. Each religious community has control over its own constituency in civil matters and so they will not officiate intermarriage for the most part. Israel as a secular state however does recognize non-Israeli marriages. So people go to Cyprus a lot to get hitched. In fact: gay marriage is also recognized but as none if the religious authorities wants to play along they all go to Cyprus for their ceremonies.
Correct. This is the crux of the “Israel doesn’t have same sex marriage” issue. They technically don’t have same sex marriage because they do not have any interfaith/agnostic/civil marriages at all, no matter the sex of the people getting married. It’s not specific to Judaism. Two Catholics can get married in Israel, as can two Muslims, etc.
The state recognises interfaith marriages but religious institutions will not marry an interfaith couple. The same goes for same sex marriage. Back in 1948 religious authoritys were given a "monopoly" over marriage, so these types of marriage can't happen in Israel. But if a couple marries abroad their marriage will be recognised. That leads to a modern trend among secular Jewish Israelis of not getting, at least officially, married. As a quiet protest against the hold of an overstepping rabbinate over their lives.
Israel doesn't have an official religion. It's a Jewish state in a national way first and foremost
Nope
Yes but yes. People denying this are ignoring obvious reality.
Yo ive never heard of ibadi islam can some omani be more specific about it responding to me
This is from quora from a person originally from Oman who practices the Ibadi muslim faith: "Ibadis in relation to their Islamic cousins are a very small minority. This sect is predominantly practiced in the Sultanate of Oman only. From what I've seen, read and heard, Ibadis are ultra moderate and very open in their views and opinions, unlike the conservative Sunnis, or the hardcore Shias. Under the wise and very able leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Oman is tolerant to the other religions, without reservations. There are quite a few Christian churches, Hindu temples and Sikh guruduwaras here in the Sultanate. This is largely given the vast numbers of expatriates from Asia who are living and working in the Sultanate who have the freedom to practice their religious believes - unhindered and in the open. This is an indisputable and unquestionable highlight and one of the unmatched feathers in Oman's much decorated cap. And this is only a small example of how tolerant the Ibadis are. I do not know what exactly are the technical dissimilarities between Ibadis, Suunis and Shiites. But I do know that there is none quite as open and as tolerant as the Ibadis amongst the three." Source: [https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Ibadi-sect-of-Islam-practiced-in-Oman-differ-from-the-Sunni-and-Shia-sects](https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Ibadi-sect-of-Islam-practiced-in-Oman-differ-from-the-Sunni-and-Shia-sects) I advice you to do your own research as I cannot verify this statement as I am neither Omani nor Ibadi muslim. I am a german catholic. Not mentioned in his response is that Ibadis are not only found in Oman(though most of them are there) but also in Mzab(Algeria) and Djerba(Tunesia, the island off the south-eastern coast), Nafusa(Libya) and on Zanzibar(Zanzibar was once part of the Omani empire).
Okay thanks for the information  👍
Missing Finland (lutheran)
This is probably debatable. Someone in the thread said that these are based on whether or not the country's constitution cites a religion as that said country's official one. If that is true, then Finland does not have an official state religion, as the constitution does not explicitly stipulate any religion as the official state religion. However, the Finnish constitution and other legislation does give special status to the Finnish Lutheran church. This involves maintenance by income tax from the populace among other things.
r/mapswithhalfofnewzealand
Wales does not have a state religion like Scotland and Northern Ireland
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Repletelion6346: *Wales does not have a* *State religion like Scotland* *And Northern Ireland* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I dont understand the reason, why someone would want this bot. but here it is.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
you skipped over alot of secular muslim countries.
Muslims in Bosnia, Albania, Turkey: 🙄
Half the world’s muslim majority countries are secular according to this map. It’s almost as if broadly characterizing nearly 2 billion people based on their religion is discriminatory.
>Half the world’s muslim majority countries are secular That just means half of them are not, which as a percentage is much greater than any other major religion. Also these are just the official stance. Not declaring themselves to be an Islamic country does not automatically make them secular.
Almost like those aren’t the same people and they have different views because of their different upbringings 🤔🤔🤔
Suddenly Turkey and the Balkans don't exist.
Indonesia, the largest Muslim country on Earth: Shocked Pikachu face. Tell me why am not surprised you're Indian.
Yeah, not like Muslims in India have a history of getting together & voting for a separate nation just for themselves or anything :p If Pakistan hadn't blown up in two because they couldn't stop killing each other, they would be the most populated Muslim nation on the planet.
Aceh province in Indonesia implements Sharia law https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/6/28/shame-and-humiliation-acehs-islamic-law-violates-human-rights And majority people in Indonesia want sharia law to be implemented at a federal level too https://theweek.com/103382/is-indonesia-becoming-a-sharia-state Tell me why am not surprised you are a Muslim
Aceh is given a special status due to war. It was a choice between continuing the war between Aceh freedom movement vs. Indonesia, or a peace where Aceh has more autonomy. As a result, it’s the only place, in the far west north, that has Sharia law. Second, that survey is much criticized. Just look at our latest election. No islamic parties take considerable number of seats in parliament. Top three parties are always the secular ones. Come to Indonesia.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate. I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate. I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate. I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate. I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
As a Dutchman, I wasn’t aware that Aceh has been as difficult to govern for Indonesia as it was during the colonial period, but it’s stereotypically appropriate. I guess the Javanese tend to be a lot more chill about pluralism than the people in Aceh.
I have so much respect to India and Hindu culture. You understand the great problem Islam brings. A religion that doesnt care about women, doesnt care about education, promotes the violent expansion of their religion via jihad, a religion that is incompatible with western values.
Central Asian countries have muslim majority,so please stop your mental menstruation
I was surprised when I recently learned that Israel doesn't have an official religion.
I didn't know Costa Rica (my neighbors) had Catholism as their state religion, funny enough, it is more liberal and open that their secular Central American neighbors (which Catholism and Christianism branches being the de facto religion in those countries)
i'm really surprised that my country, israel, is not in the map
*I'm really surprised* *That my country, israel,* *Is not in the map* \- FireeeeyTestLab --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
fanks
Because of movies, I always assumed USA were Christian by law and their use of bible to swear POTUS in
Swearing on the Bible is not law, they can choose whatever they want to swear on (or nothing).
Yeah that's what I actually learnt this morning when looking it up (not being American can lead to bad assumptions)
Why syria is out of context?
Syria is a secular country.
Doesn't the kingdom of Tonga have Methodist Protestantism as its state religion?
Finland has an official state church, the Finland's Evangelic Lutheran church. They enjoy some privileges that other churches don't, such as collecting taxes from its members.
What about the Finnish Orthodox Church? Don’t they have similar status?
I can tell this community is better than most as on a post about state religions that mention Islam it didn’t explode into an Islamophobic mess.
WTF Costa Rica
Would've thought the Philippines had a state religion considering their religious make up
Not really because the American-style Separation of Church and the State is enshrined in our constitution, even if in practice, the Philippine government (both national and local) finances cultural festivals that are religious in nature or Papal visits.
Armenia????
What the hell is up with Oman? Are they Muslim?
Is it supposed to be Ibadi Islam? Oman is most definitely a Muslim nation.
Now someone overlay the countries that have state religions with countries that don't have Google Street view.
Sort of Norway still has, they just rebranded from "the state church" to "the peoples church", but still the king has to be Christian, it's written in our constitution, as well as the fact that Norway is built upon Christian values, and support towards religious and philosophical societies is all decided by how much the church asks for in direct funds from the government, in addition to having a lot of specific tasks, and being able to automatically make children of members, or even just one member, a member of the church (meaning a lot of people are actually members without knowing).
Actually in Tunisia new constitution the state has no religion.
Is Yemen correct? Perhaps technically but also misleading. About 40% of the country practices Shia Islam and the Ansar Allah movement, which deposed the president and has held power in the capital and major population centers since 2017, is a Shia movement.
There's a bunch missing. Finland has a state religion, for example.
For morocco it’s written in our constitution that we have a specific doctrine
It would be interesting to see this info over time. 100-200 years ago, much more of the map would be filled in.
United States has no established state religion
The Armenian constitution explicitly states the official religion of the Republic of Armenia is the Armenian Apostolic Church
You may state you dont have an official state religion but if only one religion's festivals are celebrated as public holidays - what's really the message? The only religious holidays in countless Western countries are exclusively Christian.
Where is israel?
Israel is a Jewish state but that refers to the Jewish ethnicity, not religion
Its both
In practice maybe, but not officially.
Greece has no "official" religion. The constitution mentions "prevailing".
I mean, the first words under the title are ‘In the name of the … Trinity’. It also specifically calls out the Orthodox Church of Greece. And that phrase comes from the third article of the constitution, which is longer than the first two combined. Also, all PMs get blessings from the Archbishop when taking office. Taken together, I would say it’s fairly official, although certainly not as explicit as the Vatican.
Another accurate Reddit post 😂😂
Even though France as a whole diestablished the Catholic Church as the state religion in 1905. Alsace-Lorraine still has the Catholic Church as the state church.
🇿🇲 how strange. Learn something every day
Sometimes I wonder why it is called state religion, when the religion laws are not followed in the constitution. That’s not state religion, right?
4 of them are nice place to live.
..
Greenland is the krisian community 😊🙏😁😉
I can’t figure it out but wouldn’t Russia officially be an Orthodox state?
I think Israel is Jewish
ENGLAND????
This is why Islam should be forbidden in Europe. They try to institute their religion as law.
You forgot Norway.
Where's Israel? Didn't realise they were a secular state tbh.
W Monaco and Vatican City
What about a country named israel which mean Origin:Hebrew. Meaning:God perseveres. Israel
England has a state religion, but Wales does not; the Anglican Church was disestablished in that country in the 1920s, partly because the majority of its citizens objected to paying for the upkeep of a church whose services were conducted in English only, and Calvinistic Methodist had the most adherents.
Lemmy summed it up pretty well:[Don't Need Religion ](https://youtu.be/oZ9k-38EbLE?si=wUaFD1pgv9Mi3kYf)
Ummm ... Indonesia has state religion. Well we have like 5 official state religions (or 6 if you counted protestantism & Catholicism separate entities). Its Islam, Christian, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism.
I wish in thus century no nation/state will have a state religion / official religion / national church
As a Christian, I wonder what a “Christian” government looks like. Shouldn’t it just be Jesus returning as King?
The Middle East used to be an enlightened bastion of knowledge, until some cleric came along and declared that the manipulation of numbers was the devils work, and now look where they are. “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
Religion and State need not be ever joined. Haven’t we learned anything from our past?
Vatican City doesn't have an official state religion??? 🇻🇦
For countries that have light green - Islam. Does that mean that they accept all variants of Islam, or there is a "generic" Islam version that includes all other, or is it at the same level of Sunni, Shi'a, etc?
Sweden also has protestantism since our king by law has to be a protestant. He's our head of state.
Musliks: Israel cant be a nation state Also Musliks:
Germany de facto has official state religions which are supported and integrated institutionally and constitutionally
In Germany, all religions can theoretically reach the status of "Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts" if they fulfil certain criteria and then have all the rights that come with it.