Despite societal restrictions, many sources claim that there is a secret underground community of Afghan Christians living in Afghanistan. The US Department of State has stated that estimates of the size of this group range from 500 to 8000 individuals.
In fact, it's only grown more impossible to live openly as a Christian in Afghanistan. Believers face dire consequences, including disownment, torture, forced admission to a psychiatric hospital or even death. No one knows for sure how many Christians are left there.
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 and 89.7% of the population, and Shia Muslims between 10 and 15%. Other religions are followed by 0.3% of the population.
The Catholic Church in Afghanistan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. There are very few Catholics/Christians in this overwhelmingly Muslim country—just over 200 attend Mass in its only chapel—and freedom of religion has been difficult to obtain in recent times, especially under the new de facto Taliban regime.
Introduction. The Taliban are a predominantly Pashtun, Islamic fundamentalist group that returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after waging a twenty-year insurgency.
Before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, there were a number of religions practiced in modern day Afghanistan, including Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. The Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan) region, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, was not converted until the 19th century.
Religious discrimination
The constitution limits the political rights of Afghanistan's non-Muslims, and only Muslims are allowed to become the President.
Since then, no place of worship has been authorized for Protestant Christians. Christians were persecuted after the Taliban came to power in the mid-1990s. The number of converts to Christianity increased as the U.S. presence increased after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Islam is the official religion of Afghanistan and the majority of the population is Muslim (approximately 99.7%). There are some very small residual communities of other faiths, including Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and Baha'i.
It is estimated that approximately 250 000 Christians are living in Iraq: Christian groups include Chaldean Catholics (67 % of all Christians) and the Assyrian Church of the East (a further 20 %).
Statistics commonly measure the absolute number of adherents, the percentage of the absolute growth per-year, and the growth of converts in the world. Studies in the 21st century suggest that, in terms of percentage and worldwide spread, Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world.
In more than 15 ahadith found in the Sahih of Imam Bukhari, Sunnan of Imam Abu Dawwud, Jamii of Imam Tirmidhi and others, the prophet (saws) said Islam has a specific lifespan on earth, these Ahadith state Allah gave Islam 1500 years then relatively soon after this He would establish the Hour, we are now in the year ...
There are many reasons why Islam spread so quickly. First Mecca was connected to many global trade routes. Another important reason was their military conquered lots of territory. A third factor was the Muslims fair treatment of conquered peoples.
Conversion to other faiths than Islam is not prohibited by law. Muslims who change their faith to Christianity, are subject to societal pressure. Extremely controversial were the blasphemy laws, which made it treacherous for non-Muslims to express themselves without being accused of being un-Islamic.
Iranian Christians have played a significant part in the historical Christian mission: currently, there are at least 6000 churches and 380,000–1,500,000 Christians in Iran.
There are small communities of Buddhists and Christians. Chondoism is represented in politics by the Party of the Young Friends of the Heavenly Way, and is regarded by the government as Korea's "national religion" because of its identity as a minjung (popular) and "revolutionary anti-imperialist" movement.
The religious affiliation of the Israeli population as of 2022 was 73.6% Jewish, 18.1% Muslim, 1.9% Christian, and 1.6% Druze. The remaining 4.8% included faiths such as Samaritanism and Baháʼí, as well as "religiously unclassified".
The religion began to decline in Afghanistan after its conquest by Arab Muslims following the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE; it saw further decline in the region during the Muslim Ghaznavid era of the 10th–12th centuries.
Many of the inhabitants of northern Afghanistan accepted Islam through Umayyad missionary efforts, particularly under the reign of Caliph Hisham and Umar ibn AbdulAziz.
In some, mostly Muslim states, censorship of the Bible exists today, such as in Saudi Arabia where the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials such as Bibles is illegal. Afghan Christians practice in secret. Bibles are not sold publicly. Importing & distributing Bibles is illegal, as is evangelism.
The Republic of Afghanistan, which is an Islamic Republic under Sharia Law, allows for polygyny. Afghan men may take up to four wives, as Islam allows for such. A man must treat all of his wives equally; however, it has been reported that these regulations are rarely followed.
Afghanistan has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, lithium, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals. Gemstones include high-quality emeralds, lapis lazuli, red garnet and ruby.
Apostates, including atheists, are considered safe if they were brought up as Muslim and do not make their beliefs public. Apostates are usually disowned by their families. Apostasy and conversion to atheism carry death sentences in Afghanistan's Islamic legal system. Mob lynchings have also been known to happen.
The legal system of Afghanistan consists of Islamic, statutory and customary rules. It has developed over centuries and is currently changing in the context of the rebuilding of the Afghan state. The supreme law of the land is the Sharia.
Afghanistan is endowed with a wealth of natural resources, which include extensive deposits of barites, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, lithium, marble, natural gas, petroleum, gemstone, salt, sulfur, talc, and zinc. Rare-earth elements can be found all over the country.