Islam is the official state religion of Afghanistan, with approximately 99.7% of the Afghan population being Muslim. Roughly 90% practice Sunni Islam, while around 10% are Shias. Most Shias belong to the Twelver branch and only a smaller number follow Ismailism. 38,200,000 (2022 est.)
Today's Afghanistan can be considered 99% Muslim. There is a rough 3/4 to 1/4 split in favor of Sunni Muslims to Shia. Though recent history has been defined by growing religious intolerance and sectarian conflict, Afghanistan does have marginal adherents of other religions.
Shia Islam in Afghanistan is practiced by a significant minority of the population. According to a PEW 2021 survey, 7% of Afghans followed Shia Islam, but other estimates have put the number as high as 35%. Afghanistan's Shia are primarily the Twelvers, while a minority are Ismailis.
Shia Muslims are a numerical majority in Iraq and Bahrain. Approximately 35% of the population in Yemen and half of the Muslims in Lebanon are Shia Muslims. There is also a very large population of Shia Muslims living in the Persian Gulf countries especially in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan is a Sunni majority country, with 76% of Pakistanis identifying as Sunni and 10-15% estimated to be Shi'ites. Both variations of Islam have many different religious schools that Pakistanis adhere to. Sufism is quite popular among both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.
The majority of Punjabi Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam, while a minority adhere to Shia Islam.
the majority of Kashmiri Muslims are Sunni Muslims and Shias account for between 20% to 25% of Muslim Population, which are majorly residing in North and central Kashmir. They refer to themselves as "Koshur" in their mother language.
The Saudi government does not conduct a census on religion or ethnicity, but some sources estimate the Shiite population in Saudi Arabia to make up around 10-15% of the approximately 23 million natives of Saudi Arabia.
Sunni and Shi'i are the two largest branches of Islam, with the overwhelming majority of Iranians practicing Shi'i Islam. About 90 percent of Iranians practice Shi'ism, the official religion of Iran. [i] By contrast, most Arab states in the Middle East are predominantly Sunni.
Approximately 11 percent of the population are citizens, of whom more than 85 percent are Sunni Muslims, according to media reports. The vast majority of the remainder are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah.
The Taliban follow an ultraconservative Sunni interpretation of Islam. Yet approximately 10 to 15 percent of Afghans are Shia, and there are a significant number of Sufi, small numbers of Ahmadis, and some Hindus and Sikhs in urban areas.
Pakistan has the second largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia. The majority are Sunni (estimated at 85-90%), with an estimated 10-15% Shia. A PEW survey in 2012 found that 6% of Pakistani Muslims were Shia.
Afghanistan is an Islamic state, in which most citizens follow Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. According to The World Factbook, Sunni Muslims constitute between 84.7 - 89.7% of the population, and Shia Muslims between 10 - 15%.
Before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. The Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan) region, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, was not converted to Islam until the 19th century.
Ethnicity and race
Since 1945, Afghan Americans have been officially classified as Caucasians. For U.S. Census purposes Afghans are racially categorized as White Americans. Some Afghan Americans, however, may self identify as being Middle Eastern Americans,Central Asian Americans or Asian Americans.
Although Syria has no official religion, 85 percent of the population is Muslim, and of these, 85 percent are members of the Sunni sect (i.e. 72 percent of the total population).
Until the 16th century, Persia was mostly Sunni. At the turn of that century, the Safavid dynasty conquered much of what is now Iran and made Shiism the official religion. The conversion was accompanied by a massive crackdown on Sunnis, so that over time much of the population became Shia.
The Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam was a process of forced conversion that took place roughly over the 16th through 18th centuries and turned Iran (Persia), which previously had a Sunni majority population, into the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam.
Shia Islam
Grand Ayatollah Sadiq Hussaini Shirazi ruled: "Tattoos are considered makruh (reprehensible but not forbidden). However, it is not permissible to have Quranic verses, names of Ahlulbayt (a.s), drawings of Imams (a.s), Hadiths, unislamic and inappropriate images or the likes tattooed onto the body.
Shia Muslims number 200 million and are the second largest denomination in the faith. Many perform the hajj, and they also travel to Iran, Iraq and beyond to visit holy sites. In Mina, Saudi Arabia, hundreds of Shias have travelled from Britain to perform the hajj.
Mecca is the only pilgrimage site officially accepted by all Muslims, but Iran and Iraq are home to a number of sites considered holy to the Shia faithful: Hussein was buried at Karbala, for example, and the tomb of Ali is in nearby Najaf.
In 2021, 209 Christians converted to Hinduism, while 32 Muslims converted to Hinduism.
Bohras (Daudi Bohras): Western (Mustaalis) Ismaili Shiah community. Settled in a few major town in Kerala like Kozhikode, Kannur, Kochi and Alappuzha. Bohras migrated from Gujarat to Kerala. They form the major part of the Shia community in Kerala.
Although Iraq is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, it is both religiously and ethnically diverse. More than 95 percent of the population is Muslim, but this total is divided between Shiites who constitute about 55-60 percent and Sunnis who represent 35-40 percent.