section_path: Demographics/Religion
section_name: Religion
paragraph_text: Religion
  
  Islam is the state religion of Egypt, and the country has the largest Muslim population in the Arab world and the world's sixth largest Muslim population, accounting for five percent of all Muslims worldwide. Egypt also has the largest Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa. Official data about religion is lacking due to social and political sensitivities. An estimated 85–90% are identified as Muslim, 10–15% as Coptic Christians, and 1% as other Christian denominations; other estimates place the Christian population as high as 15–20%.
  
  Egypt was an early and leading centre of Christianity into late antiquity; the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria was founded in the first century and remains the largest church in the country. With the arrival of Islam in the seventh century, the country was gradually Islamised into a majority-Muslim country. It is unknown when Muslims reached a majority, variously estimated from c. 1000 CE to as late as the 14th century. Egypt emerged as a centre of politics and culture in the Muslim world. Under Anwar Sadat, Islam became the official state religion and Sharia the main source of law.
  
  The majority of Egyptian Muslims adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam. Nondenominational Muslims form roughly 12% of the population. There is also a Shi'a minority. The Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs estimates the Shia population at 1 to 2.2 million and could measure as much as 3 million. The Ahmadiyya population is estimated at less than 50,000, whereas the Salafi (ultra-conservative Sunni) population is estimated at five to six million. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and has been dubbed "The City of 1,000 Minarets". The city also hosts Al-Azhar University, which is considered the preeminent institution of Islamic higher learning and jurisprudence; founded in the late tenth century, it is by some measures the second oldest continuously operating university in the world. It is estimated that 15 million Egyptians follow native Sufi orders, with Sufi leadership asserting that the numbers are much greater, as many Egyptian Sufis are not officially registered with a Sufi order. At least 305 people were killed during a November 2017 attack on a Sufi mosque in Sinai.
  
  Of the Christian population in Egypt over 90% belong to the native Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, an Oriental Orthodox Christian Church. Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Egypt and various other Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are largely found in the urban regions of Cairo and Alexandria, such as the Syro-Lebanese, who belong to Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Maronite Catholic denominations.
  
  The Egyptian government recognises only three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Other faiths and minority Muslim sects, such as the small Baháʼí Faith and Ahmadiyya communities, are not recognised by the state and face persecution by the government, which labels these groups a threat to Egypt's national security. Individuals, particularly Baháʼís and atheists, wishing to include their religion (or lack thereof) on their mandatory state issued identification cards are denied this ability, and were put in the position of either not obtaining required identification or lying about their faith. A 2008 court ruling allowed members of unrecognised faiths to obtain identification and leave the religion field blank.