Islam in Norway

Islam is the second largest religion in Norway after Christianity. As of 2019, "Statistics Norway" gives a number of 175,507 Muslims living in Norway or 3.29% of total population. These numbers vary depending on the source. The U.S. government statistics from the CIA registered 121,095 members of Islamic congregations in Norway, roughly 2.3% of the population, according to a 2011 estimation. The Pew Research Center estimated that 3.7% of Norwegians were Muslim in 2010 and 5.7% in 2016. According to a 2019 Statistics Norway report on "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents", there are approximately 280,000 first and second generation migrants who come from overwhelmingly Muslim majority countries like Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. If we consider all these first and second generation migrants as Muslims,then the total Muslims population of Norway in 2019 will be 5.1% out of the total population of 5,421,241.
The majority of Muslims in Norway are Sunni, with a significant Shia minority. 55% lived in the counties of Oslo and Akershus. Scholarly estimates regarding the number of people of Islamic background in Norway vary between 120,000 (2005) and 163,000 (2009). The vast majority have an immigrant background, with Norwegians of Pakistani descent being the most visible and well-known group.
Islam in Norway has also some famous converts which includes the ethnic Norwegian man Yousef-Al Nahi and Vegard Bjørge, they are both well known for their engagement on social media, especially when it comes to tolerance and rights for minorities. Other famous Muslims from Norway includes Fatima Almanea, Hadia Tajik and Sumaya Jirde Ali.
History.
Icelandic annals relate the arrival of embassies from the Muslim sultan of Tunis in Norway in the 1260s, after King Håkon Håkonsson had sent embassies to the Sultan with rich gifts. The population of Muslims in the country has not been noticeable until the latter half of the 20th century, however. By 1958, Ahmadiyya missionaries had attracted a small number of converts and established a small community in Oslo. Immigration from Muslim countries to Norway began late compared to other western-European countries, and didn't gather pace until the late 1960s. However, due to the oil boom, labor migration lasted longer than other countries. The first Pakistani immigrant laborers arrived in 1967. In 1975, labor immigration to Norway was halted, but rules for family reunification were relatively relaxed for several more years. As a result, while most immigrants until the 1970s were laborers, immigration in the 1980s and 1990s was dominated by asylum seekers.
The number of Muslims in Norway was first registered in official statistics in 1980, when it was given as 1006. These statistics are based on membership of a registered congregation, and it is most likely that the low number is due to the fact that few Muslims were members of a mosque. Historian of religion Kari Vogt estimates that 10% of Norwegian Muslims were members of a mosque in 1980, a proportion which had increased to 70% by 1998. Being a member of a mosque was an alien concept to many immigrants from Muslim countries. In Norway, because government grants to religious congregations are based on the number of registered members, except for the state church. The number of registered members of mosques increased to 80,838 in 2004, but have since dropped to 72,023 in 2006. Part of the reason for the drop could be a new methodology in the compilation of statistics.
In the end of the 1990s, Islam passed the Roman Catholic Church and Pentecostalism to become the largest minority religion in Norway, provided Islam is seen as one group. However, as of 2013, the Roman Catholic Church regained its position as the largest minority religion in Norway due to increasing immigration from European countries and less immigration from Muslim-majority countries. In 2009, the total number of registered Muslim congregations was 126. More than 40 prayer locations exist in the city of Oslo.
In 2010 a Muslim from Örebro in Sweden wanted to build a mosque in Tromsø with money from Saudi Arabia but the Norwegian government declined to give permission on the grounds that Saudi Arabia has no freedom of religion and potential Norwegian money to churches in the opposite direction would be stopped as churches are illegal there.
In June 2018, the parliament of Norway passed a bill banning clothing covering the face at educational institutions as well as daycare centres, which included face-covering Islamic veils. The prohibition applies to pupils and staff alike.
Religiosity.
Studies conducted for a TV channel in 2006 found that 18% of Norwegian Muslims reported visiting the mosque once a week. A similar study in 2007 reported that 36% of Muslim youth visit the mosque less than once a month.
According to a 2007/2008 survey of students at upper secondary schools in Oslo, 25% of Muslims pray regularly while 12% attend religious services weekly.
Opinion.
According to a survey in 2016, about 98% of Norwegian Muslims believed that Human rights are important, about 94% believed Democracy is important, and 95% believed that Muslims should live in peace with Non-Muslims. In the same poll a minority of 47% said that it is not important to follow Sharia law.
According to a 2017 poll, 3 out of 10 Muslims agree it's important to follow Sharia law.
According to an investigation published in 2017, only two percent of all Muslims in Norway (about 4200 individuals) agree to statements such as "Islam allows the use of violence" and that the September 11 attacks in New York 2001 can be justified.
Radicalization.
About 70 people have left Norway to become foreign fighters in Syria or Iraq, while around 20 have returned.
In May 2019 it was announced that those who had joined the Islamic State who only had residence permits in Norway would have their permits annulled to prevent them from returning to Norway. And in September 2019, 15 foreigners in Norway had their residence permits revoked.
Demographics.
Muslims in Norway are a very fragmented group, coming from many different backgrounds. Kari Vogt estimated in 2000 that there were about 500 Norwegian converts to Islam. The rest are mostly first or second generation immigrants from a number of countries. The largest immigrant communities from Muslim countries in Norway are from Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia:
An unknown, but presumably high, proportion of these immigrant populations is Muslim. In other words, the largest group of Norwegian Muslims originate in Pakistan, but no single nationality constitute as much as a quarter of the total population.
The Turkish, Pakistani and Iranian communities are quite established in Norway. 55% of Iranians have lived in Norway more than 10 years. The Iraqis are a more recent group, with 80% of the Iraqi community having arrived in the past 10 years.
In the 1990s there was a wave of asylum seekers from the Balkans, mostly Bosniaks. In recent years most immigrants arrive as part of family reunification.
According to the Verdens Gang newspaper, during the 1990s around 500 people converted to Islam in Norway and this number increased to around 3,000 in 2019.
Organizations.
Mosques have been important, not just as places of prayer, but also as a meeting place for members of minority groupings. Several mosques also do different forms of social work, e.g. importantly, organising the transport of deceased members back to their countries of origin for burial. The mosques are mostly situated in regular city blocks, and are not easily visible features of the cities.
Some of the earliest attempts to organize Islamic worship in Norway was done by labor organizations as early Muslims were labor migrants. The first mosque was established in 1972 by Pakistani immigrants. Another mosque, the Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC) opened in Oslo in 1974. The initiative for the mosque came from Pakistanis who were helped by the Islamic Cultural Centre which had already opened in Copenhagen in Denmark. The new mosque adhered to the deobandi branch of Sunni Islam. Adherents of the Sufi inspired Barelwi movement, who constituted the majority of Pakistanis in Norway, soon felt the need for a mosque of their own, and opened the Central Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat in 1976. This is today the second largest mosque in Norway, with over 6,000 members. The first Shia mosque, "Anjuman-e hussaini", was founded in 1975, and until 1994 was the only Shia congregation. The Tablighi Jamaat came to Norway in 1977. An Albanian mosque was established in 1989, and a Bosnian mosque in the 1990s. Until the 1990s, mosques and Islamic organizations in Norway were established along ethnic lines. Such establishments were by immigrants from Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, Arab world, Somalia, The Gambia and Bosnia.
Starting around 1990, Muslims of different ethnicities and sects came together to form umbrella organizations. The "Muslim Defence Committee" was established in 1989 to give an Islamic response to the Salman Rushdie affair. The Islamic Women's Group of Norway and "Urtehagen Foundation" were established in 1991, and in 1993 the Islamic Council of Norway was established to conduct dialogue with the Church of Norway. Another major change in the 1990s was that mosques became more inclusive to women. For example, in 1999 the ICC began offering Arabic and Qur'an classes to women and including women in Eid prayers.
Also in the 1990s, Muslim youth and student associations were established. In 1995, the Muslim Student Society (MSS) was founded at the University of Oslo, driven by a need to find prayer space for Islamic prayer. The MSS soon expanded its activities to include conducting interfaith dialogue, courses on "dawah", iftar during Ramadan, and other community projects. In 1996, the Muslim Youth of Norway (NMU) was founded. In 1999, NMU began publishing "Explore" (later called "Ung Muslim") a magazine geared towards Norwegian Muslim youth.
By 2005, only one purpose-built mosque existed in Norway, built by the Sufi-inspired Sunni Muslim World Islamic Mission in Oslo in 1995. Minhaj-ul-Quran International established its mosque and centre in 1987. In 2000, this was the first Norwegian mosque to start performing the adhan - the call to prayer. Initially, the mosque received permission from Gamle Oslo borough to perform the adhan once a week. This was appealed to county authorities by the Progress Party. The ruling of the "fylkesmann" (county governor) of Oslo and Akershus stated that no permission was required for performing the adhan, leaving the mosque free to perform it at their own discretion. The mosque decided to limit themselves to performing the adhan once a week.
While less than 10% of Muslims were members of an Islamic organization in 1980, this figure rose to 50% in 1990, and increased to 55% by 2007.
Umbrella organisations.
The main umbrella organization in Norway is the Islamic Council Norway, which was set up in 1993. As of 2008, it comprises 40 member organisations totalling 60,000 members. Since 1997, the Islamic Council has also had Shia representation. The Islamic Council is regularly consulted by the government in matters of religion. The Council is also involved with interfaith dialogue, particularly with the Church of Norway. In 2009, the Islamic Council publicly denounced harassment of homosexuals. Minhaj-ul-Quran has a branch in Norway and community centre was established in Oslo in 1987. In 1991, the Islamic Women's Group Norway ("Islamsk Kvinnegruppe Norge") was founded, after an initiative by the Norwegian convert Nina Torgersen. In 1995, a Muslim Students' Society ("Muslimsk Studentsamfunn") was established at the University of Oslo, with some of its officers, such as Mohammad Usman Rana, becoming important voices in the Norwegian public sphere. The Islamic foundation "Urtehagen" was established in 1991 by the Norwegian convert Trond Ali Linstad, at first running a kindergarten and youth club. In 1993, Linstad applied for the first time to establish a Muslim private school. The Labour Party government of Gro Harlem Brundtland rejected the application in 1995, stating that it would be "detrimental to the integration of the children". After the Labour government was replaced by the government of Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian People's Party in 1997, Linstad applied again, and his application was approved in 1999. In August 2001, Urtehagen School ("Urtehagen friskole") opened with 75 pupils. However, internal conflicts at the school led to its closure in the spring of 2004. Plans to open a similar school in Drammen in 2006 were blocked after the new left-wing government stopped all new private schools after coming to power in 2005. As of today, no Muslim schools exist in Norway.
Ahmadiyya.
Various Ahmadi mosques include Noor Mosque, opened in Oslo August 1, 1980 and Baitun Nasr Mosque in Furuset, Oslo. There are about 1,700 Ahmadi Muslims in Norway. Majority of the Ahmadi Muslims in Norway are from Pakistan.
Salafi.
Profetens Ummah is a Salafi organisation in Norway. It is a notorious organisation famous for its statements praising Islamic terrorism and vocal demonstrations. Many Norwegian jihadi fighters for ISIL have links with this organization.Islam Net is another salafist organisation in Norway, founded by engineer student Fahad Qureshi in 2008. It is also a radical organisation.The Norwegians who joined Isis were members of this organization. Its founder created controversies by advocating death penalty for homosexuals and stoning for adultery. He also caused controversy by refusing to shake hands with a Norwegian female minister.
Non-Denominational Islam.
In June 2017, revealed plans to create a mosque in Oslo named Masjid al-Nisa (The Women's Mosque). In an interview, al-Obaide described the mosque as "a feminist mosque where women have as much space as men." The establishment will allow both men and women should be able to lead prayers, and all genders should be able to pray in the same room. The mosque will also be open to LGBT people and has been compared to the Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque in Germany and the Mariam Mosque in Denmark.
Culture.
Since 2007, the Islamic Cultural Centre stages an Eid Mela annually that attracts around 5,000 visitors. The event involves food, concerts, and other activities.
Interfaith relations.
Following the 2015 Copenhagen shootings, Norwegian Muslims were among those taking part in a vigil on 21 February 2015 evening, in which they joined hands with Norwegian Jews and others to form a symbolic protective ring around the Norwegian capital's main synagogue.
Controversies.
Antisemitism.
In 2010, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation after one year of research, revealed that antisemitism was common among Norwegian Muslims. Teachers at schools with large shares of Muslims revealed that Muslim students often "praise or admire Adolf Hitler for his killing of Jews", that "Jew-hate is legitimate within vast groups of Muslim students" and that "Muslims laugh or command [teachers] to stop when trying to educate about the Holocaust".
Islamic dress.
As of 2014, no laws had been implemented to restrict Islamic dress in public space or schools. In 2007, a debate occurred to ban face veils in higher education but institutions advised against such a bill. Similar debates arose in 2010 but failed to result in any ban. In 2012, a student at the University of Tromsø was kicked out of class by a professor but no general ban on niqabs was adopted. However, the Oslo City Council and County Board of Østfold banned niqabs in teaching situations at their high schools. Norwegian law does not reference a right of people to wear religious headgear, but the issue is referenced by the Working Environment Act and the Gender Equality Act. The Norwegian Labour Inspectorate considers refusal to accommodate religious headgear as discrimination. Hijabs have been incorporated into uniforms in the army, healthcare, etc.
In a 2014 poll conducted by the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity, a majority of Norwegians were negative to the wearing of the hijab outside the home. A stronger antipathy (75%) was expressed towards the hijab being part of the police uniform in Norway. Concerning the full-cover niqab, 86% expressed a negative or very negative opinion.
In June 2017, the Norwegian government proposed rules banning female students from wearing full-face veils. Education Minister Torbjorn Roe Isaksen said that in their perspective, full-face veils like the hijab don't have a place in educational circumstances since they counteract correspondence. The administration is subsequently examining the likelihood of controlling the utilization of such pieces of clothing in childcare focuses, schools and colleges.
The Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg stated in an interview that in Norwegian work environments it is essential to see each other's faces and therefore anyone who insists on wearing a niqab is in practice unemployable. Solberg also views the wearing of the niqab as a challenge to social boundaries in the Norwegian society, a challenge that would be countered by Norway setting boundaries of its own. Solberg also stated that anyone may wear what they wish in their spare time and that her comments applied to professional life but that any immigrant has the obligation to adapt to Norwegian work life and culture.
In April 2019, telecom company Telia received bomb threats after featuring a Muslim woman taking off her hijab in a commercial. Although the police did not evaluate the threat likely to be carried out, delivering threats is still a crime in Norway.
Discrimination.
Islamophobia refers to the set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings fear, towards Islam and Muslims in Norway. Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, negative coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims. In 2004 the slogan, "Ikke mobb kameraten min (Don't touch my hijab)," was adopted by a Norwegian protest movement focused around the case of Ambreen Pervez and a proposed hijab ban. Pervez was told by her employer that she was not to wear her hijab to work. The slogan was an adaption of the French slogans, "Ne touche pas a mon pote (Don't touch my buddy)," and, "Touche pas à mon foulard (Don't touch my hijab.)" A number of employment discrimination cases in Norway arose over the wearing of the hijab.
Perceptions.
A 2005 study analyzed the portrayal of Muslims in the 8 largest newspapers of Norway. It found that Muslims were generally portrayed negatively, even more negatively than other immigrants, and only 3% of the articles portrayed Muslims positively.
In a 2014 poll conducted by the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity, 5 of 10 Norwegians considered Islamic values to be either completely or partially incompatible with Norwegian society.
According to a 2020 poll conducted by the Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity, a slight majority of people of Norway (52%) consider Islam incompatible with fundamental values of the Norwegian society. This result had been similar for the last 15 years. By comparison, only a minority (22%) considered Buddhism incompatible with Norwegian values.


Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple

The Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple is the 99th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was the first temple to be built in the church's Caribbean area.
Santo Domingo is the Dominican Republic's capital city. Founded in 1496, it is the oldest European settlement existing in the New World. In 1978 the Dominican Republic was opened to Mormon missionaries. By 1986, membership had grown to eleven thousand and in 1998, LDS Church membership reached sixty thousand. Before the temple was built in the Dominican Republic, members of the church traveled to Peru, Guatemala, or the U.S. state of Florida to attend a temple.
The temple was announced on December 4, 1993. On August 18, 1996, Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve presided over the groundbreaking, marking the beginning of construction. When construction was completed, a public open house was held from August 26 to September 9, 2000, attracting nearly forty thousand people. Over ten thousand church members from the Dominican Republic and their neighbors from Haiti, Puerto Rico, and other islands witnessed the dedication of the temple on September 17, 2000 by LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley.
The Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple is located in the western part of the city. It is built on a rise that has kept it dry when other parts of the city were flooded. The site is adorned with trees and overlooks the Caribbean Sea. It has a total of , four ordinance rooms, and four sealing rooms.
Temple district.
The temple supports church members in most of the Caribbean. As of April 2020, the temple district comprises the 27 stakes and 14 districts headquartered in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Cuba, Aruba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guadeloupe. Church units in Haiti, The Bahamas, and Jamaica are assigned to temples in Port-au-Prince, Florida, or Panama, although church members may attend any temple in the world.
Services.
Workers at this temple are able to provide services in the following languages commonly spoken in the temple district:
As most workers at this temple are Spanish-speaking Dominicans, patrons requiring services in a language other than Spanish would be well-advised to notify the temple before arriving.
Adjacent to the temple is a hostel operated by the church. Its intent is to provide overnight accommodations to patrons who cannot return to their homes the same day they attend the temple. A kitchen and dining area are available for the use by patrons, but the hostel does not include a cafeteria (though restaurants and grocery stores are within walking distance).
Controversy.
In 2012, a researcher revealed that Anne Frank had been baptized for the dead in the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple, in violation of a 1995 agreement between the church and Jewish groups that the church would no longer posthumously baptize Holocaust victims. In response, the church stated that the member that submitted the name for baptism would lose their submission privileges and that other disciplinary action would be considered.


Religious Rehabilitation Group (Singapore)

The Religious Rehabilitation Group (Abbreviation: RRG; Malay: "Kumpulan Pemulihan Keagamaan"; Jawi: كومڤولن ڤموليهن كاڬامأن; Chinese: 宗教改造小组; Tamil: மத மறுவாழ்வு குழு) is an organization of voluntary Islamic scholars and teachers in Singapore who assist in the religious rehabilitation and counselling of radicalised and self-radicalised individuals.
Formed in 2003, RRG's initial mission was to rehabilitate detained members of the regional terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Soon, RRG's focus was expanded to provide counselling and financial support for families of the detainees to prevent further radicalisation. Over the years, RRG has extended its outreach to the wider community in efforts to dispel misinterpretations of Islamic concepts and prevent them from falling under the influence of extremist terrorist ideology.
The work of RRG has received domestic and international praise. Among the aspects of RRG's work that were lauded include the counselling and care of families of detainees, and its implementation of rehabilitation in an academic environment where it is willing to study and adapt.
History.
The RRG was founded in April 2003 following the arrest and detention of Jemaah Islamiyah members in December 2001 and August 2002.
In RRG's early beginnings, several Islamic teachers viewed RRG with suspicion, perceiving it to be merely a tool of the Government. Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram, Mufti of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), said that this was a psychological challenge that the Muslim community has to face, and that preachers and teachers must stand up and develop self-confidence in order to guide the community.
Efforts.
Counselling and outreach efforts.
Since its formation, RRG has performed more than 1,500 counselling sessions, which also extend to the family members of detainees.
In collaboration with other agencies, RRG conducts workshops and seminars at schools, madrasahs, and mosques. Since its inception, RRG has written and published a series public education material, which include two counselling manuals and information booklets.
On 1 June 2016, RRG launched a mobile app.
Welfare of family members.
RRG makes it a priority to maintain the social welfare of family members of detainees. The counselling and care of family members ensure that rehabilitation continues at home even after the release of a detainee. Ustazah Kalthom Md Isa, an RRG counsellor, said: "We want the family members to be on the same page in terms of religious understanding. They play a key part in rehabilitating the detainees back into life after they are released."
Contemporary challenges.
A contemporary focus is now turned to young Muslims and education. In light of terror-related propaganda online, the RRG is also turning its attention to cyberspace.


Islam in East Timor


National Council of Churches in Korea

The National Council of Churches in Korea (; NCCK) is a Christian ecumenical organization founded in Korea in 1924 as the National Christian Council in Korea. It is a member of the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia.
Member churches.
There are now 9 member churches in the National Council of Churches in Korea:


Japhet Ledo

Japhet Yao Ledo is a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana (E.P. Church). He served as moderator of the church from January 1993 to January 2001, when he was replaced by Livingstone Komla Buama.
Ledo hails from Klefe in the Volta Region of Ghana, just as his successor Buama.
After retiring as Moderator, he served in various capacities including as Chairman of the Evangelical Presbyterian University Fund Raising Committee.


Islamic Community of Kosova

The Islamic Community of Kosovo (ICK; ), is an independent religious organization of Muslims in Kosovo and the Preshevo Valley. The community's headquarters are located in Pristina and their current leader, the Grand Mufti (), is Naim Tërnava.
History.
Organized Islamic activities have taken place in Kosovo since the Ottoman Empire ruled over the region. All Muslims of the empire were part of the Islamic community, which was headed by the Sultan.
During the reign of Sultan Murad II, responsibilities of the caliph were transferred to the "Grand Mufti." Since then, the Grand Mufti was given the honorific scholarly title "Sheykhul-Islam" and considered the highest religious authority within the Ottoman Empire. Additionally, every region inhabited by Muslims has had its own mufti. Each regional mufti was subordinate to the Sheykhul-Islam.
During the period 1941 to 1956, the faith community in Kosova joined the Albanian Muslim community (, which was headed by the "Grand Mufti" based in Tirana.
After the First World War, Kosovo was placed under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The Islamic community of the kingdom was headed by "Reis-ul-ulama", based in Sarajevo. The responsibility of the "Reis-ul-ulama" was to organize Muslim religious life in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. In contrast, in Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo, Muslim religious life was organized by the "Supreme Mufti", subordinate to the "Reis-ul-ulama" whose office was in Belgrade.
After the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the responsibilities of the "Supreme Mufti" were transferred to the "Ulama Majlis" in Skopje and the responsibilities of the "Reis-ul-ulama" were transferred to the "Ulama Majlis" in Sarajevo. The newly established "Ulama Majlises" formed the Rijaset of Islamic community, with its head office in Sarajevo.
After the Second World War, the Islamic community of Kosovo became part of the Islamic community of Serbia, based in Pristina. The Islamic community of Serbia was part of the Islamic community of Yugoslav Federation ("Rijaset"), based in Sarajevo. The Islamic community of Kosovo then declared independence from the "Rijaset" on 11 December 1993.
Kosovo Conflict (1998-1999).
The central historical archive belonging to the Islamic Community of Kosovo containing community records spaning 500 years was burned down on June 13, 1999 by Yugoslav Serb police after an armistice and some hours prior to the coming of NATO peacekeeping troops to Prishtinë. The Hadum Suleiman Aga library (founded 1595) in Gjakovë, was burned down (March 24) by Yugoslav Serb troops resulting in the loss of the regional archives of the Islamic Community spanning to the 17th century.
Modern period.
On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania. The Islamic Community of Kosovo organised a fundraising effort on 29 November after Friday prayers across all its mosques within the country and sent several convoys of aid to earthquake victims.
Structure.
The Islamic community of Kosovo is divided into 8 regions (Councils of Islamic Community):


Kenneth J. Grant

Rev. Kenneth James Grant (1839–1932) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary who was one of the founding fathers of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago and was a founder of secondary education in East Indians.
Grant was born in Scotch Hill, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. In 1854, he started teaching in Cape John, Nova Scotia after receiving his teachers' certificate. He later started studying Theology, attending school in Truro, Nova Scotia, graduating in 1859, and also in Princeton, New Jersey, until moving to Trinidad and Tobago in 1870. There, he started teaching at the government-funded Sabbath School on Cicero Street, teaching the local Indians while he himself also learned Hindi. He also founded Naparima College in 1894, the first secondary school on the island. Grant Memorial Presbyterian School in San Fernando is named in his memory. Dr. Grant also helped found Hillview College, in his honour one of the school's four houses is named Grant House, with its colour being blue. A picture of him can be found hanging in the Administration building.
Grant died in 1932 in Nova Scotia. Grant's son, Thomas, was a prominent businessman in Trinidad and Tobago and founded T. Geddes Grant Ltd. His grandsons Fred, and Sir Lindsay ran the company, and Jackie and Rolph captained the West Indies Test cricket team.


Jacques Dinet

Jacques Dinet (1584-1653) was a French Jesuit, confessor to Louis XIII and an associate of René Descartes.
Life.
He was born at Moulins, nephew of Gaspard Dinet who was bishop of Mâcon.
He knew Descartes from La Flèche, where for some of the time he supervised Descartes's studies as principal prefect. Later, Descartes found him sympathetic enough to use as a sounding board, and potential intermediary with Pierre Bourdin, another Jesuit and critic of the "Dioptrics". A letter to Dinet in 1642 attacked both Bourdin and Gisbertus Voetius, an opponent at the University of Utrecht. The letter also set out his position in relation to scholastic philosophy. By including it in the second edition of his "Meditations on First Philosophy", Descartes raised the stakes in these fights. At that time Dinet was in a position of influence, as Jesuit provincial in Paris, for the Île-de-France.
In 1643 Dinet took over from Jacques Sirmond the position of confessor to the dying Louis XIII. In 1653 he was also briefly confessor to Louis XIV. His account of the death of Louis XIII was later edited for publication by Antoine Girard, appearing as "L'Idée d'une belle mort" (1656).


Marcel-Jacques Dubois

Marcel-Jacques Dubois (1920–2007) was a French academic and theologian of the Dominican Order and a naturalized citizen of Israel. He was linked to Bruno Hussar's "House of Isaiah" and involved in Relations between Catholicism and Judaism. He was professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (where he served as chairman of department) and was on the 1974 "Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews." He had significance as an orthodox Dominican who rejected supersessionism. He spent much to most of his life in Israel and Teddy Kollek declared him an "Honored Citizen of Jerusalem". He participated in a series of televised debates with Israeli thinker Yeshayahu Leibowitz. In 1996 he won the Israel Prize for his work for Israeli society.


Shiek Abdulazis Guroalim Saromantang

Shiek Abdulazis Guroalim Saromantang is a Maranao, an Ulama, and a specialist in Arabic sayings in the Qur’an. He was the first Filipino Muslim who translated Qur’an into Maranao language. He was a former mayor of Tugaya, Lanao del Sur.
Qur'an translation in Maranao Language.
Ustadz Muhammad Sulaiman, a Maguindanaon, criticized Saromantang's second chapter translation on the Qur'an telling the story about "Moses." Two Maranao people Jamil Tamano and Saromantang's grandson Rasol Abbas defended the criticism as Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao have different native language.


Siege of Avignon (737)

The Siege of Avignon, in which Frankish forces led by Charles Martel beat the Umayyad garrison of Avignon and destroyed the stronghold, was contested in 737.
Contemporary view.
Arabs had occupied the city of Avignon in 734, after it had been surrendered to Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri, Umayyad governor of Narbonne, by Duke Maurontus of Provence. According to the "Continuations of Fredegar", Maurontus probably invited Yusuf into the city after forming an alliance with him against Martel. The "Chronicle of Moissac" confirms that Yusuf's forces moved peacefully from Arab-held Septimania into Provence and entered Avignon without a fight. In reaction, Martel sent his brother Duke Childebrand south in 736, accompanied by fellow dukes and counts. Childebrand laid siege to Avignon and held the field until his brother was ready to storm the city.
Martel's forces used rope ladders and battering rams to attack the walls of Avignon, which was burned to the ground following its capture. The army then crossed the Rhône River into Septimania in order to lay siege to Narbonne.
This siege was part of the campaigns of 736-737 during which Charles Martel for the second time engaged Arab armies from Al-Andalus beyond the Pyrenees. Unlike the invasion of 732-733, the Arabs came this time by sea. Notable at these battles was the use of heavy cavalry in addition to Martel's vaunted veteran Frankish infantry. Though he had some catapults, the city of Avignon was largely taken by a simple, brutal, frontal assault using rams to smash through the gates, and ladders to scale the walls.
Modern critical viewpoints.
Anthony Santosuosso, an expert in the Dark Ages and Medieval Europe, has argued that these events were as important macrohistorically as Martel's victory at the Battle of Tours. The campaigns, which ended with the complete destruction of a large Arab force, attempting to relieve Narbonne, at the Battle of the River Berre in 737, crushed any hope of expansion while the Umayyad Caliphate was still united, before the Battle of the Zab, at which the Umayyads were defeated by their Abbasid rivals.
In Paul Fouracre's account, however, both the extent and the importance of Martel's victories are said to have been greatly exaggerated by Paul the Deacon and the "Continuations of Fredegar" in which Martel came to be depicted as the progenitor of later Frankish success and the Franks as "God's people". Other historians point to Charles' interests in the region, who in 736 had just occupied the Lyonnais and the Middle Rhone, and may have seen his newly conquered Burgundy in danger. At any rate, it seems apparent that the local magnates of Provence, ruling semi-autonomously, saw the impending danger coming from the north, and may have in turn called in the Muslim forces from bordering Septimania.


St. James Church, Barbados

St. James Parish Church, is located in Holetown, St. James, Barbados. It stands on one of the oldest parcels of consecrated land on the island, often known in Barbados as "God's acre". Part of the Diocese of Barbados in the Church in the Province of the West Indies, St. James Parish Church is just north of Holetown, beside Folkstone Park.
Daily tours are conducted to share the church's rich history. There are many beautiful monuments, and items of historical value, some dating back to the 1600s. Two services are held every Sunday: a spoken Eucharist at 7:15 am and a sung Eucharist at 9 am. On months with a fifth Sunday, there is one service at 8 am. There are also morning matins on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 am.
As well as being a heavily visited tour spot, St. James is also a very popular choice for conducting weddings.
History.
The first settlers landed on the island on February 17, 1627 at Holetown not far from the site where the church was eventually built. The settlement there expanded rapidly and it became necessary to erect a place of worship. In 1628 the settlers constructed a wooden building on this site. St. James Parish Church was one of the original six parishes later created under the administration of Sir William Tufton, the sixth Governor of Barbados.
After a hurricane on August 31, 1675 which devastated most of the island, a stone structure replaced the former wooden building in the early 1690s. This stone structure was made from coral and limestone from which this non-volcanic island is made. Another violent hurricane struck in 1780 and according to Robert Hermann Schomburgk's "History of Barbados" only two churches and one chapel remained; St. Andrew, St. Peter and All Saints. There is no specific record of what happened to St. James in the storms of 1675 and 1780 but after the hurricane of 1831 St. James was not among the churches listed as having been destroyed. Schomburgk states that in 1846 at the time of his writing this book, the building was 54' X 40' in size with a seating capacity of 550 and a congregation of approximately '360 souls'.
After nearly 200 years the walls of the original stone building began to decay and were partly demolished and replaced by a larger, more substantial structure in 1874.
In 1874, the nave roof was raised on new pillars and arches. The enlarged building was consecrated by Bishop Mitchinson on Easter Tuesday, 1875. Except for the sanctuary and north porch, added in 1900s, this is substantially the building still in use today.
Points of interest.
Many of the original settlers and various noted Barbadians were laid to rest in the Church and its yard. The dates on the grave stones, vaults and memorial plaques reflect this history.
The church's first organ was ordered and built by the English firm, Hill & Son, at a cost of 320 pounds. After it arrived in January 1876 and was assembled, the first organist was Charles A. Greenidge and the bellows blower, Reynold W. Gillman. Over time this organ was replaced, with various upgrades performed over the years until the existing instrument was completely rebuilt from 2006–2007 and rededicated in 2008. Some of the pipes and structure still date back about one hundred years. The present organist is Philip Forde FRCO.
The original bell, the oldest in Barbados, carries the inscription "God Bless King William 1696". It was manufactured by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry that also produced the American "Liberty Bell" and "Big Ben". It fell from the belfry in 1881 and was badly cracked but a benefactor donated a new bell. However, considering its historic value the old one was sent to England for repairs and returned to Barbados to be retained as a monument, which predates the American "Liberty Bell" by 56 years.
The Baptistery, on the ground floor of the belfry, contains the original font which is over 300 years old and bears the inscription "Debit Richardus Walter to the Church of St. James Anno 1684."
There is a popular legend attached to St. James' Church, that a gate in the north wall surrounding the churchyard, referred to as 'The Devil's Gate' is opened about one hour before service. When the bell is rung the Devil leaves the church by this gate, and it is closed as the service is about to begin, so that the Devil is excluded from the area. This is presumably derived from the old belief that church bells were rung to drive the devil out of the building.


Philippine House Committee on Muslim Affairs

The Philippine House Committee on Muslim Affairs, or House Muslim Affairs Committee is a standing committee of the Philippine House of Representatives.
Jurisdiction.
As prescribed by House Rules, the committee's jurisdiction is on Muslim affairs which includes the following:


Baba Ratan Hindi

Bābā Ratan al-Hindī () was a legendary person, alleged to be one of the non-Arab companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Born in Bathinda in present-day Punjab, India, his full name was Ratan Nath ibn Nasr. He was a trader who used to take goods from India to Arabia. Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani mentions him in his book al-Isaba fi tamyiz al-Sahabah – the most comprehensive dictionary on the companions of Muhammad.
Sayyid Ashraf Jahangir Semnani talks about him in his book "Maktoobat Ashrafi" in chapter 28. Shaikh Abdurrahman Chishti also mentions him in his book "Mirat-ul-Asrar" on page 656
Conversion to Islam.
When in India, Baba Ratan heard about the miracle of the splitting of the moon in Arabia. Thereafter, he visited Arabia on trade and also to verify the said miracle. He met Muhammad during the Battle of the Trench and accepted Islam.
Muhammad is said to have prayed for the long life of Baba Ratan Al Hindi. He is alleged to be the first Muslim of Indian extraction.
Mausoleum.
According to some claims Baba Ratan Al Hindi passed away in the year 1234 or 1243 CE. His shrine is situated in "Mohalla Haji Ratan Nagar" in Bathinda, Punjab, India
Close to the mausoleum is the well-known Sikh temple of Bathinda named after Baba Ratan. According to local legends, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh guru lodged next to this mausoleum during his visit to the town.
The shrine is managed by the Punjab Waqf Board of India.


Light Maekawa

The Right Reverend Light Shinjiro Maekawa was consecrated as the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Bishop of Hokkaido in September 1941.


Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye

Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye (Odo-Owa, Ekiti State, 25 December 1929 - Odo-Owa, Ekiti State, 14 December 2012) was the former Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He was married briefly for 11 months, until his wife's death in 1968; they had a son.
His father, who was a devout Christian, died when Adetiloye was aged 3 years old, and he and his siblings were raised by his mother. He entered school in 1937 and it was reported that "he was always neat in school each day despite the fact that he had only one uniform". He decided to become an Anglican priest at a very young age.
He passed with distinction is first school leaving examination in 1944 and was a teacher for 6 years. He was the acting church agent at St. Paul's Church in Ara-Yero, now called Araromi at his 6th year.
He decided to attend Melville Hall, in Kudeti, Ibadan, in 1949, to become a priest. He was further educated in England at King's College London (BD), and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He was ordained a deacon at the end of 1953 at the Cathedral Church of Lagos, by the first Archbishop of West Africa, Leslie Vining. He was a curate at St. Peter's Church, in Ake, Abeokuta, since 1954, latter was a chaplain to Archbishop Vining and afterwards to Archbishop Howells. This enabled him to move to Wycliffe Hall, to continue his studies. He was involved in some parish ministries at St. George in Leeds and was a curate at St. Mary's Church in Plaistow. Returning to Nigeria, the Adetiloye was a teacher at the Immanuel College of Theology in Ibadan, for four years and three months. On 10 August 1966, he became vicar and provost at the Cathedral Church of St. James, in Ibadan. In August 1970, he was elected and nominated bishop of the Diocese of Ekiti, latter being transferred to the Diocese of Lagos, of which he was bishop from 1985 to 1999.
He was enthroned as the second Primate of the Church of Nigeria on 26 December 1986, the following day to his 57th birthday, at the Cathedral Church of Lagos, by his predecessor, Archbishop Timothy O. Olufosoye. He retired in December 1999, after 13 years in office. During his tenure, the Church of Nigeria became a fast-growing church, increasing from 27 dioceses in 1986 to 76 in 1999. In 1997, the growth of the Church of Nigeria lead to a division into three ecclesiastical provinces. Archbishop Adetiloye headed the Province One, consisting of the dioceses in the West, while remaining Primate of All Nigeria.
His tenure is described by Elijah Olu Akinwumi: "His passion for evangelism and missions motivated him to judiciously mobilize financial resources from the Lagos diocese: directly, by challenging men to give and leading by his example; indirectly, by encouraging wealthy parishes to support seemingly weak ones or even planting new churches or opening a new diocese as the case may be. This move brought tremendous growth to the Anglican communion particularly in northern Nigeria."
He died on his home city of Odo-Owa, on 14 December 2012, aged 82 years old. His death was mourned as a great national loss.


Richard Paul Blakeney

Richard Paul Blakeney (1820–1884) was an Irish-born religious writer and cleric. He was well known as a vigorous champion of evangelical doctrines in the Church of England, and was the author of a large number of controversial books and tracts, which attained a wide circulation.
Life.
Blakeney was descended from an old Norfolk family, which had moved to Ireland before his birth. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in 1842, taking high honours in theology. In 1852 he proceeded LL.B. and LL.D. Meanwhile he became curate of St Paul's Church, George Street, Nottingham in 1843, vicar of Hyson Green, Nottinghamshire, in 1844, vicar of Christ Church, Claughton, Birkenhead, in January 1852, vicar of Bridlington in 1874, rural dean of Bridlington in 1876, and a canon of York in 1882.
The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of D.D. in 1868. Blakeney died at Bridlington on 31 December 1884.


Thomas Zhang Huai-xin

Thomas Zhang Huai-xin (; 23 May 1925 – 8 May 2016) was a Chinese Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1960, Zhang Huai-Xin was consecrated bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Weihui, China, in 1981 and served until his death in 2016.


Nasu people

The Nasu people (Chinese: 纳苏, "Nàsū"), are an ethnic group in the People's Republic of China. They are a subgroup of the Yi people and are mainly distinguished by their use of the Nasu language, one of five main branches of the Yi languages.
They are divided into the Eastern Nasu with more than 400,000 persons in Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County, the Jinghong Nasu with more than 20,000, the Panxian Nasu with more than 300,000 in Panzhou, the Southern Nasu with more than 100,000, and the Wusa Nasu. They are from Yunnan and Sichuan. They are classified as part of the Yi people. The Nasu language (Eastern Yi) is one of the Lolo–Burmese languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman languages. Among the Eastern Nasu and the Wusa Nasu, a significant minority is Christian.
Most of the Yi people of the Luquan area do not have the autonym Luoluo and Nasu in the local dialect of Yi language means "black", hence the Black Yi (Chinese 黑彝 Hei Yi). However, the terms Black Yi (aristocrats) and White Yi (peasants) are properly caste distinctions, not linguistic ones.
See also.
Nasu language


Eternal Spring Shrine

Eternal Spring Shrine, also called Changchun Shrine (), is a landmark and a memorial shrine complex in Taroko National Park in Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. It is one of the major picturesque points of the park, with the view of the mountains and the waterfall, and one of the main memorials for veterans.
It was planned for construction in 1958 while the Central Cross-Island Highway was built nearby. It commemorates the memory of 212 veterans who died while constructing the highway (1956—1960).
The name of the temple comes from the Changchun Falls that never stop running. The Shrine is located right above the waterfall streams.
It has been rebuilt at least twice, after being destroyed by landslides. The most recent shrine was built in 1989.


History of the Jews in Vienna

The history of the Jews in Vienna, Austria, goes back over eight hundred years. There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Vienna from the 12th century onwards.
At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, Vienna was one of the most prominent centres of Jewish culture in Europe, but during the period of National-Socialist rule in Austria, Vienna's Jewish population was almost entirely deported and murdered in the Holocaust. Since 1945, Jewish culture and society have gradually been recovering in the city.
History.
Middle Ages.

Proof exists of a Jewish presence in Vienna since 1194. The first named individual was "Schlom", Duke Frederick I’s Münzmeister (master of the mint). In 1238, emperor Frederick II granted the Jews a privilege, and the existence of community institutions such as a synagogue, hospital and slaughterhouse can be proven from the 14th century onwards. Vienna’s city law empowered a special "Judenrichter" ("Judge of the Jews") to adjudicate in disputes between Christians and Jews, but this judge was not empowered to rule in conflicts between two Jewish parties, unless one party filed a complaint with him.
The first Jews lived in the area near the Seitenstettengasse; from around 1280, they also lived around the modern-day Judenplatz. The centre of Jewish cultural and religious life was located here from the 13th to the 15th century, until the Vienna Gesera of 1420/21, when Albert V ordered the annihilation of the city’s Jews.
Early Modern (16th–18th centuries).
In the year 1512, 12 Jewish families lived in Vienna. Although there was a ban on new settlement in place until 1624, this was repeatedly circumvented through the granting of exceptions, to the point that a new cemetery was established in the Seegasse in 1582. Jews’ rights were further restricted in 1637, leading to the second expulsion of Vienna's Jewish population in 1669/70 under Leopold I. The second Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 however led to Samuel Oppenheimer’s appointment as a financier to the court; he was also responsible for the restoration of the cemetery. Oppenheimer was able to help Samson Wertheimer from Worms to come to Vienna in 1684. Wertheimer was later named Court Jew, but he could not perform his duties as a Rabbi in Vienna and therefore left for Eisenstadt, part of the Siebengemeinden, where Jews were welcomed under Paul I, 1st Prince Esterházy of Galántha.
From 1736, there was a small Sephardic population in Vienna, which had its own religious community with a synagogue at the time of Maria Theresa. The majority Ashkenazi population only obtained the same status much later under Franz Joseph I.
Influenced by the Enlightenment, emperor Joseph II decreed his Edict of Tolerance, which paved the way for Jewish emancipation. For the first time in history, Jews received certain rights already accorded to Gentiles, and discriminatory laws were struck from the books. They were however still forbidden to form a religious community and to hold religious services in public.
Restoration (19th century).
In 1824, Michael Lazar Biedermann's recommendation led to Rabbi Isaak Mannheimer being brought from Copenhagen to Vienna. As there was still officially no Jewish religious community, Mannheimer was employed as the “Director of the imperially approved public Israelite religious school of Vienna”. Mannheimer realised cautious reforms in Vienna without provoking a schism within the Jewish population, such as those that occurred in the majority of Jewish communities in Europe in the 19th century. With Lazar Horowitz, who was summoned to Vienna as a Rabbi in 1828, Mannheimer agitated for the abolition of the discriminatory Jewish Oath. The merchant Isaak Löw Hofmann also played a leading role in Vienna's Jewish community from 1806 until his death in 1849.
On 12 December 1825, Mannheimer laid the foundation stone for the Stadttempel in the Seitensteingasse. The synagogue, which had been designed by Joseph Kornhäusel, was sanctified by Mannheimer on 9 April 1826. In the same year, Salomon Sulzer from Hohenems was appointed hazzan at the synagogue, where he served for 56 years.
The Revolution of 1848 was seen by many Jewish intellectuals as a welcome opportunity to agitate for the emancipation of their community. For the first time in their history, Jews were accorded the unrestricted right to reside and to practice their religion throughout Austria in the 1867 constitution. As a consequence, the Jewish community grew rapidly: in 1860, the Jewish community in Vienna numbered 6,200; in 1870, that number had already risen to 40,200, and at the turn of the century, to 147,000. Vienna's 2nd district, Leopoldstadt, developed into the centre of Vienna's Jewish life at this time. The Jewish population in this area of the city soon represented half of the entire population in the district. The neighbouring districts of Brigittenau (which was divided from Leopoldstadt in 1900) and Alsergrund equally had high proportions of Jews. The Jews that lived in these areas made up the majority of Vienna's Jewish population and belonged for the most part to the lower or middle classes – they were manual labourers, craftsmen, small-scale businessmen (e.g. café owners) and traders. Wealthy Jews lived for the most part in the villa suburbs of Döbling and Hietzing, and in the city centre, the Innere Stadt.
Theodor Herzl responded to the increasing spread of Antisemitism during this period with the creation of political Zionism. At the same time however, the Jewish community was led predominantly by assimilated Jews.
Collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and First Republic (1910s–1930s).
After the outbreak of World War I and the first Austrian defeats on the eastern front, an exodus of 350,000 refugees began in the eastern regions of the empire (Galicia). Amongst the refugees were some 50,000 (according to the police) to 70,000 (according to the Arbeiterzeitung newspaper) Jews, who all arrived at Vienna's northern railway station in Leopoldstadt.
Although around half of these new arrivals returned to their homes once the situation had calmed down on the eastern front, the entire Jewish community in Vienna and its relations with Vienna's Christian population were put to the test by these events. The refugees were poverty-stricken, but work was hard to come by and factories were unwilling to employ the refugees. The situation has been described thus: "“While the Germans were condemning the Jews in the east to forced labour, the Austrians were condemning them to forced unemployment”". Many of the refugees tried to earn their daily bread as peddlers or salesmen, and many charity organisations sprung up to coordinate clothes donations and other campaigns, but the "“Ostjuden”" ("Eastern Jews") were the victims of many negative prejudices and because of their poverty were more frequently the targets of antisemitic attacks than wealthy assimilated Jews. It was not made easy for them to establish themselves in Vienna.
With the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy, Jews could move freely throughout Austria-Hungary. The community in Vienna grew again; it remained approximately the same size until the start of the persecution of Jews in the 1930s. At this time, Vienna's Jews were divided into two groups. On the one hand, there were the Jews who had either lived for a long time in Vienna or who had been born there and who assimilated into Christian society. On the other hand, there were Orthodox Jews, who wished to live in line with traditional beliefs and practices. The community's voting habits also reveals a division; while the majority, made up for the most part of assimilated Jews, voted for the social democrats, others voted for Jewish parties, which disputed elections both in the empire and in the First Republic and which concentrated their campaign advertising on fighting the social democrats for votes. Over time, almost all Jews came to vote for the social democrats, because the Jewish parties were seen as not strong enough, while all other parties were antisemitic and refused to accept Jewish members.
Antisemitism became ever more pronounced during this period. In Jewish quarters, in particular in Leopoldstadt, antisemitic organisations distributed their flyers and newspapers aimed at turning the Christian population against their Jewish neighbours. A protest at the Praterstern organised by socialists and communists against such provocation ended in violence. When the German-nationalist Josef Mohapl was stabbed to death by an apolitical attacker who already had a criminal record, right-wing newspapers dubbed this the “Christian pogrom in Leopoldstadt”, and from this moment onwards, Nazi hooligans were to be seen in Leopoldstadt. One of the first attacks on prominent establishments that these groups instigated was the destruction of the well-known “Café Produktenbörse” in December 1929. The attack on a prayer room in the Café Sperlhof in 1932 was particularly violent; praying Jews were beaten and the attackers laid waste to the building.
Many Jews joined socialist and/or Zionist (youth) organisations, the largest of which were Hashomer Hatzair, Poale Zion and the Jewish Socialist Workers’ Youth. In the 1930s, some socialist, Jewish and Zionist movements united in committees for action, to organise street patrols and to take action against “Hakenkreuzler” (thugs bearing the swastika), who were attacking Jews. The first such group was the “Jüdische Selbstwehr” ("Jewish Self-Defence"). The paramilitary organisation Betar also had members in Vienna.
After a century of progress towards Jewish emancipation, antisemitic attacks encouraged by the Christian Social Party, the Greater German People's Party and the Nazis became more common between the two World Wars. Hugo Bettauer was amongst those who recognised the signs of the time. The film “The City Without Jews” is based on his novel with the same title.
The Holocaust (1938–1945).
Just one day after the Anschluss in March 1938, Jews were being harassed in Vienna. They were driven through the streets of Vienna, their homes and shops were plundered and the process of Aryanisation began. These events reached their climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna were destroyed – the Stadttempel was the sole survivor because its location in a residential area prevented it from being burned down. Most Jewish shops were plundered and then closed down; over 6000 Jews were arrested in this one night, the majority were deported to the Dachau concentration camp in the following days. The Nuremberg Laws applied in Austria from May 1938; they were reinforced with innumerable anti-semitic decrees. Jews were gradually robbed of their freedoms, were blocked from almost all professions, were shut out of schools and universities, and were forced to wear the Yellow badge.
The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate. Their plans succeeded – by the end of 1941, 130,000 Jews had left Vienna, 30,000 of whom went to the USA. They left behind all of their property, but were forced to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all émigrés from the Third Reich; some received financial support from international aid organisations so that they could pay this tax. Following the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where the Nazis resolved to completely annihilate the Jewish population, the majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna became victims of the Holocaust. Of the more than 65,000 Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, only a few more than 2000 survived.
Second Republic (Since 1945).
After World War II, it took a long time for Austria to come to a clear position with regard to its part of the responsibility for the horrors of the "Third Reich". In the 1980s, a shift in thinking took place that led to the declaration on the part of the Austrian government in June 1991, in which Chancellor Vranitzky made the first explicit statement in parliament concerning the participation of Austrian citizens in the crimes of Nazi Germany.
Vienna's Jewish population numbered more than 201,000 before 1938. In 1946, just 4,000 Jews remained, many of whom emigrated in the following years. Meanwhile, the Jewish population in Germany actually grew as a result of emigration from Eastern Europe at this time. At the end of the 1990s, there were barely more than 7000 registered members of Vienna's Jewish community. Many of the Jews who live in Vienna today came to the city as refugees from Eastern Europe to begin a new life in the Austrian capital. Immigrants of Jewish origin from the lands of the former Soviet Union in particular have strengthened the ranks of Vienna's Jewish population. In 1992, a Sephardic Centre was officially opened in the city, while in 1994, the Psychosocial Centre Esra ("Help") was established, and in 1999, the new school building of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation opened in the Augarten. In 2000, the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, designed by Rachel Whiteread, was unveiled, and a Museum of Jewish history, life and religion was also opened at the Judenplatz.
In autumn 2008, the Zwi Perez Chajes school moved from the Castellezgasse to the Simon-Wiesenthal-Gasse next to the Messe Wien at the Prater. The school thus forms part of a complex including a Jewish kindergarten, primary school, and grammar school for around 600 children, and is located near the Hakoah Vienna sport club, which was re-opened in March 2008, an education centre, and an old people's home.
The 2001 census in Austria counted 8140 Jews in Austria, of which 6988 were living in Vienna. The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, however, believes that there are around 15,000 Jews in Austria; some sources speak of as many as 20,000.
Leopoldstadt continues to represent a centre of Jewish life in Vienna. The proportion of the population of Jewish religion is above average, at 3.1%. There are eight Ashkenazi and three Sephardic synagogues or prayer houses in this district of the city, seven Jewish educational institutions, as well as numerous kosher shops and restaurants.
Synagogues.
Over the centuries, 93 synagogues have been founded in Vienna. The only synagogue to have survived the Kristallnacht pogrom is the Stadttempel. Some new synagogues and prayer rooms have since been established.


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Russia

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had a presence in Russia before the rise of the USSR, with the first baptisms occurring in 1895. Preliminary missionary efforts began before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the Russian government officially recognized the church in 1991. Membership increased in the 1990s and early 2000s. Missionary efforts were impacted by the 2016 Yarovaya law, which prohibited proselyting outside of official Church property. Current membership statistics are not available for Russia, but the church reported 19,946 members in 2009. As of 2015, there are three stakes. There are five missions in Russia as of 2017. In 2018, Russell M. Nelson announced that a temple would be constructed in a major city in Russia.
History.
Early beginnings.
In 1843, 13 years after the church was formed, Joseph Smith called two missionaries - George J. Adams and Orson Hyde - to serve in Russia. Smith stated that "some of the most important things concerning the ... building up of the kingdom of God in the last days" involved Russia. Adams and Hyde's mission, however, was canceled after the death of Joseph Smith. In the 1840s, the Russian press reported the Mormon pioneers' move west, and in the 1870s and 80s chronicled the struggle between the church and the U.S. government over the practice of plural marriage. In 1887, while serving in Jaffa, Palestine, Joseph M. Tanner reportedly baptized some Russians who then settled in Utah. The first Latter-day Saint baptisms in Russia occurred in 1895. August Höglund, a Swedish native, was sent to St. Petersburg in response to a request from the Lindelof family for missionaries to visit them. Johan and Alma Lindelof were soon baptized, and two of their children followed in 1905. This event encouraged Francis M. Lyman to travel to Russia in 1903 to dedicate it for missionary work. He gave dedicatory prayers in Moscow and at the Summer Palace in St. Petersburg. Church leaders visited the Lindelofs following their conversion. An LDS missionary was sent to Latvia, but increasing political tension thwarted further efforts to proselyte in the Russian Empire. After the October Revolution occurred, the Lindelof family was arrested and only two children are confirmed to have survived.
Soviet era.
There is no evidence of additional converts to the church before 1989; however, John H. Noble claimed to have met a "handful of Mormons" while in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. He recorded that they were persecuted by the Communist government for their association with an American religion, but persisted in practicing their faith. The term "Mormon" was also used by Russians to describe unaffiliated polygamist groups.
In 1959, Ezra Taft Benson visited Moscow and spoke to a crowd in the Central Baptist Church. The Russian translation of The Book of Mormon was published on June 3, 1981. As the political climate began to change, the Russian people began learning of the church through travel to other countries and contact with members. The Terebenin family joined the church while visiting Budapest, Hungary in 1989, and it was in their home on February 11, 1990 where the first Russian branch of the LDS Church was created. Soviet diplomat Yuri Dubinin traveled to Utah in April 1990; while visiting Brigham Young University, he affirmed that the church would be allowed inside the USSR. Russell M. Nelson dedicated the land for missionary work for the second time in 1990, in the same Summer Garden where Lyman gave the original prayer. The first mission in the Soviet Union was established in July 1990.
Modern day.
The church was officially recognized by the Russian government in May 1991. The Russia Moscow and St. Petersburg missions were founded in February 1992 after legislation passed that allowed for greater religious freedom. At the time, church membership had reached 750. In the 1990s and early 2000s, membership grew and three stakes were established in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Saratov. In March 1998, a pair of missionaries were kidnapped while working in Saratov and held for a demanded ransom of $300,000. The ransom was never paid, and the young men were released four days later.
Recent developments.
Beginning in July 2016, anti-terror laws passed in Russia prohibit most religious proselyting. The LDS Church announced that it would adhere to the new restrictions outlined in this Yarovaya law, including referring to missionaries as "volunteers." According to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, the law prohibits "preaching, praying, disseminating religious materials, and even answering questions about religion outside of officially designated sites." A 2018 Radio Free Europe story detailed the challenges these volunteers face in Russia, including not being able to directly tell people about the Church in public places and combating abundant anti-Mormon media. According to "The Moscow Times", Roskomnadzor, the part of the Russian government overseeing media censorship, has blocked the Church's website. In March 2019, a pair of Latter-day Saint volunteers serving in Novorossiysk were arrested and deported by Russian police for visa violation when they were found teaching English. There are continuing cultural obstacles, particularly due to the overlap that occurs between church culture and American culture. Russian privacy laws also make the use of the church-operated FamilySearch website impossible for Russian members. The church has built its own chapels in Russia, but tends to purchase and remodel existing buildings in order to draw less negative attention. Emigration and low birth rates currently contribute to falling membership numbers. In 2020, the LDS Church canceled services and other public gatherings indefinitely in response to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Statistics and other information.
As of January 1, 2009, the church reported 19,946 members, 8 missions, 15 districts, and 129 branches in Russia. Members made up 0.14 percent of Russia's population. In 2017, the First Presidency dissolved the Russia Vladivostok Mission into the Novosibirsk Mission, lowering the number of missions in Russia to five. A 2017 "Deseret News" report claimed 23,180 members and 103 congregations. Currently, no membership statistics are available for the country.
Stakes.
As of January 2021, Russia has three stakes:
Temples.
Russian members attended the Stockholm Sweden Temple and the Freiberg Germany Temple before the Helsinki Finland Temple and the Kyiv Ukraine Temple were constructed. Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine have made travel more difficult for members seeking to attend the Kyiv temple. In the Russian Far East, members have also used the temple in Seoul.
At the church's April 2018 general conference, Russell M. Nelson announced a temple to be constructed in Russia. The official location has not been announced, though it will reportedly be in a major city. While visiting Moscow that same month, Dieter F. Uchtdorf encouraged church members to prepare for the temple but to have "patience," as development and construction will be slow. Ronald A. Rasband visited Eastern Europe in 2019 and assured Russian members that a temple would indeed be built.


Christianity in Iran

Christianity in Iran dates back to the early years of the faith, pre-dating Islam. It has always been a minority religion relative to the majority state religions (Zoroastrianism before the Islamic conquest, Sunni Islam in the Middle Ages and Shia Islam in modern times), though it had a much larger representation in the past than it does today. Christians of Iran have played a significant part in the history of Christian mission. Currently there are at least 600 churches and 500,000–1,000,000 Christians in Iran.
Major denominations.
A number of Christian denominations are represented in Iran. Many members of the larger, older churches belong to minority ethnic groupsthe Armenians and Assyrians having their own distinctive culture and language. The members of the newer, smaller churches are drawn both from the traditionally Christian ethnic minorities and converts from non-Christian background.
The main Christian churches are:
According to Operation World, there are between 7,000 and 15,000 members and adherents of the various Protestant, Evangelical and other minority churches in Iran, though these numbers are particularly difficult to verify under the current political circumstances.
The International Religious Freedom Report 2004 by the U.S. State Department quotes a somewhat higher total number of 300,000 Christians in Iran, and states the majority of whom are ethnic Armenians followed by ethnic Assyrians.
The "Country Information and Guidance: Christians and Christian Converts, Iran" report published in December 2014 by the Home Office of the United Kingdom states there are 370,000 Christians in Iran.
History.
According to the "Acts of the Apostles" there were Persians, Parthians and Medes among the first new Christian converts at Pentecost. Since then there has been a continuous presence of Christians in Iran.
During the apostolic age Christianity began to establish itself throughout the Mediterranean. However, a quite different Semitic Christian culture developed on the eastern borders of the Roman Empire and in Persia. Syriac Christianity owed much to preexistent Jewish communities and to the Aramaic language. This language had been spoken by Jesus, and, in various modern Eastern Aramaic forms is still spoken by the ethnic Assyrian Christians in Iran, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey and Iraq today (see Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, and Senaya language).
From Persian-ruled Assyria (Assuristan), missionary activity spread Eastern-Rite Syriac Christianity throughout Assyria and Mesopotamia, and from there into Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, the Caucasus and Central Asia, establishing the Saint Thomas Christians of India and erecting the Nestorian Stele and the Daqin Pagoda in China.
Early Christian communities straddling the Roman-Persian border found themselves in the midst of civil strife. In 313, when Constantine I proclaimed Christianity a tolerated religion in the Roman Empire, the Sassanid rulers of Persia adopted a policy of persecution against Christians, including the double-tax of Shapur II in the 340s. The Sassanids feared the Christians as a subversive and possibly disloyal minority. In the early-5th century official persecution increased once more. However, from the reign of Hormizd III (457–459) serious persecutions grew less frequent and the Persian church began to achieve a recognised status. Through the Battle of Avarayr (451) and the resultant treaty of 484, for example, the Persian Empire's numerous Armenian subjects gained the official right to profess Eastern Christianity freely. Political pressure within Persia and cultural differences with western Christianity were mostly to blame for the Nestorian schism, in the course of which the Roman Empire church hierarchy labelled the Church of the East heretical. The bishop of Ctesiphon (the capital of the Sassanid Empire) acquired the title first of catholicos, and then patriarch, completely independent of any Roman/Byzantine hierarchy.
Some regard Persia as - briefly - officially Christian. Khosrau I, Shahanshah from 531 to 579, married a Christian wife, and his son Nushizad was also a Christian. When the king was taken ill at Edessa a report reached Persia that he was dead, and at once Nushizad seized the crown and made the kingdom Christian ( 550). Very soon the rumour proved false, but persons who appear to have been in the pay of Justinian persuaded Nushizad to endeavour to maintain his position. The actions of his son deeply distressed Khosrau; he had to take prompt measures, and sent the commander, Ram Berzin, against the rebels. In the battle which followed Nushizad was mortally wounded and carried off the field. In his tent he was attended by a Christian bishop, probably Mar Aba I, the Patriarch of the Church of the East from 540 to 552. To this bishop Nushizad confessed his sincere repentance for having taken up arms against his father, an act which, he was convinced, could never win the approval of Heaven. Having professed himself a Christian he died, and the rebellion was quickly put down.
Many old churches remain in Iran from the early days of Christianity. Some historians regard the Assyrian Church of Mart Maryam (St. Mary) in northwestern Iran, for example, as the second-oldest church in Christendom after the Church of Bethlehem in the West Bank. A Chinese princess, who contributed to its reconstruction in 642 AD, has her name engraved on a stone on the church wall. The famous Italian traveller Marco Polo also described the church following his visit.
The Arab Islamic conquest of Persia, in the 7th century, originally benefited Christians as they were a protected minority under Islam. However, from about the 10th century religious tension led to persecution once more. The influence of European Christians placed Near Eastern Christians in peril during the Crusades. From the mid-13th century, Mongol rule was a relief to Persian Christians until the Ilkhanate adopted Islam at the turn of the 14th century. The Christian population gradually declined to a small minority. Christians disengaged from mainstream society and withdrew into ethnic ghettos (mostly Assyrian- Aramaic- and Armenian-speaking). Persecution against Christians revived in the 14th century; when the Muslim warlord of Turco-Mongol descent Timur (Tamerlane) conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia Minor, he ordered large-scale massacres of Christians in Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia Minor and Syria. Most of the victims were indigenous Assyrians and Armenians, members of the Assyrian Church of the East and of Orthodox Churches.
In 1445 a part of the Assyrian Aramaic-speaking Church of the East entered into communion with the Catholic Church (mostly in the Ottoman Empire, but also in Persia). This group had a faltering start but has existed as a separate church since Pope Julius III consecrated Yohannan Sulaqa as "Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon" in 1553. Most Assyrian Catholics in Iran today are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Aramaic-speaking community that remains independent is the Assyrian Church of the East. Both churches now have much smaller memberships in Iran than the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The number of Christians in Iran was further significantly boosted through various policies of the subsequent kingdoms that ruled from 1501. For example, in 1606 during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18), king Abbas I resettled some 300,000 Armenians deeper within modern-day Iran, as well as establishing their own quarter in the then-capital Isfahan, which is still largely populated by Christian Armenians some four centuries later: the New Julfa district. Other hundreds of thousands of Christian Georgians and Circassians were furthermore deported and resettled during the same Safavid era and in the later Qajar era within Iran, although both communities are exclusively Muslim nowadays.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Protestant missionaries began to evangelize in Persia. They directed their operations towards supporting the extant churches of the country while improving education and health-care. Unlike the older, ethnic churches, these evangelical Protestants began to engage with the ethnic Persian Muslim community. Their printing presses produced much religious material in various languages. Some Persians subsequently converted to Protestantism and their churches still exist within Iran (using the Persian language).
In the early 20th century, once again Iran's stable and extant Christian population was boosted - this time due to the effects of the Assyrian Genocide (1914-1924) and the Armenian Genocide (1914-1923), as many tens of thousands of refugees poured in. However, both massacres drastically negatively affected Iran's Christian population as well, as Ottoman troops crossed the Iranian border in the later stages of World War I and massacred many tens of thousands of Armenians and Assyrians within Iran's borders as well, especially in West Azerbaijan Province, but also in adjacent provinces. Vibrant, huge and millennia-old native Christian communities in these parts of Iran were virtually shattered by the Ottoman actions, being reduced from formerly composing majorities in some of the regions, to very small - though noticeable - surviving communities. Prior to World War I and the Assyrian Genocide, the population of Urmia was 40% to 50% Christian, for example. Nowadays, this number for the same city lies at 1% to 2%.
In 1918, during the Persian Campaign, about half of the Assyrians of Persia died in Turkish and Kurdish massacres and in related outbreaks of starvation and disease. About 80 percent of Assyrian clergy and spiritual leaders perished, threatening the nation's ability to survive as a unit.
Current situation.
In 1976, the census reported that the Christian population of Iran holding citizenship there numbered 168,593 people, with most of them being Armenians. Due to the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, almost half of the Armenians migrated to the newly independent Armenia, but one estimate from 1999 placed the number as high as 310,000. Other estimates since 2000 have placed the number of Christians with Iranian citizenship as high as 109,415 in 2006.
Significant immigration of Assyrians from Iraq has been recorded during this period, due to massacres and harassment in post-Saddam Iraq. However, most of those Assyrians in Iran do not have Iranian citizenship, and therefore aren't included in the data. In 2008, the central office of the International Union of Assyrians was officially transferred to Iran after being hosted in the United States for more than four decades.
The government guarantees the recognized Christian minorities a number of rights (production and sale of non-halal foods), representation in parliament, special family law etc. According to US-based Barnabas Fund government intrusion, expropriation of property, forced closure and persecution, particularly in the initial years after the Iranian Revolution, have all been documented.
On 2 February 2018, four United Nations human rights experts said that members of the Christian minority in Iran, particularly those who have converted to Christianity, are facing severe discrimination and religious persecution in Iran. They expressed their concerns over treatment of three Iranian Christians imprisoned in Iran.
Iranian Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in Tehran.
Christianity remains the second-largest non-Muslim minority religion in the country.
A June 2020 online survey found a much smaller percentage of Iranians stating they believe in Islam, with half of those surveyed indicating they had lost their religious faith. The poll, conducted by the Netherlands-based GAMAAN (Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran), using online polling to provide greater anonymity for respondents, surveyed 50,000 Iranians and found 1.5% identified as Christians.
Christian converts from Islam.
Beginning in the 1970s some Protestant pastors started to hold church services in homes in Persian, rather than in one of the ethnic Christian minority languages such as Armenian or Syriac. One of the key leaders who spearheaded this movement was the Assemblies of God bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr. Worshiping in homes, rather than in church buildings, and utilizing the national language (Persian) which was spoken by all Muslims, combined with dissatisfaction at violence connected to the Iranian Revolution led to substantial numbers of Iranian Muslims departing Islam and converting to Christianity. This took place both within Iran and abroad, among the Iranian diaspora. It is currently illegal to distribute Christian literature in the official language, Persian.
Muslims who change their faith to Christianity are subject to societal and official pressure which may lead to the death penalty. Although the Civil Code does not provide explicitly for the death penalty – with the crime being punishable by fines, lashing, and prison terms – judges can impose the death penalty if they desire.
Pentecostal pastor Hossein Sudmand was charged with apostasy and executed in 1990. Mehdi Dibaj was arrested and imprisoned for more than 10 years before he was sentenced to death in 1993, but after international pressure, he was freed in 1994, although the death sentenced was not lifted. He was murdered the next year. In 2011, Youcef Nadarkhani, an Jammiat-e Rabbani pastor, was allegedly sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith. More recently the Iranian-American pastor and former Muslim Saeed Abedini, who in 2013 was sentenced to eight years prison, allegedly "Helped to build the country’s underground Christian church network". Iranian official sources have denied these claims.
Satellite TV networks, such as Mohabat TV, Sat7 Pars, and TBN Nejat TV distribute educational and encouraging programs for Christians, especially targeting Persian speakers. Some Christian ex-Muslims emigrate from Iran for educational, political, security or economic reasons.
It is difficult to obtain accurate figures for Protestants of all denominations and Catholics in Iran. Complicating the matter is the mixture of ethnic identity with religious affiliation, and the number of Muslim converts to Christianity, who as discussed above have a strong incentive to conceal themselves. Most informants often referred to "only a few thousand" in estimating the overall numbers of non-ethnic Christians in Iran. According to the data from the mid 1990s, all Protestant churches in Iran claimed an ethnic and Iranian membership of 5,000, 8,000, 10,000 or 15,000. A 2015 study estimated (describing this as a conservative estimate) that there were 100,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background living in Iran, most of them evangelical or Pentecostal Christians.
In May 2019 Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi expressed concern over Iranian Muslims converting to Christianity and said the Intelligence Ministry have dispatched agents active in "countering the advocates of Christianity" to areas where there is a potential for people to convert.
The Bible in languages of Iran.
Armenian and Assyrian Christians use Bibles in their own languages.
Multiple Persian translations and versions of the Bible have been translated in more recent times, although distribution of Christian literature in Persian is currently illegal.
Portions of the Bible are translated into Azeri, Mazanderani, Gilaki, Bakhtiari, Luri, Kurdish, Kurmanji, and Sorani.


Cassian of Tangier

Saint Cassian of Tangier (or of Tangiers or of Tingis) was a Christian saint of the 3rd century. He is traditionally said to have been beheaded on 3 December, AD 298, during the reign of Diocletian. The "Passion" of Saint Cassian is appended to that of Saint Marcellus of Tangier. It is not considered reliable by some modern scholars.
According to it, he was a court recorder at the trial of St. Marcellus the Centurion. Aurelius Agricola, deputy prefect in the Roman province in North Africa, conducted the trial. When the death penalty was imposed on St. Marcellus, Cassian threw down his pen and declared that he was a Christian. He was arrested immediately and put to death. Cassian is the patron saint of modern stenographers.
Saint Cassian of Tangier is the martyr mentioned by St. Prudentius (born 348) in his hymn "" ("De Coronis Martyrum") (Carmen IV, 45-48 ): "Ingeret Tingis sua Cassianum,
festa Massylum monumenta regum,
qui cinis gentes domitas coegit.
ad iuga Christi."


Religion in the Federated States of Micronesia

The population of the Federated States of Micronesia is predominantly Christian, although the representation of various denominations varies greatly from state to state. The government generally upholds the freedom of religion, but the small Muslim community in the country faces significant discrimination from both general society and the government.
Demographics.
The Roman Catholic Church, as well as several Protestant denominations, are active in every Micronesian state. Most Protestant groups trace their roots to American Congregationalist missionaries. On the island of Kosrae, the population is approximately 7,800; (95% Protestant). On Pohnpei, the population of 35,000 is evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants (50% catholic & 50% Protestant). On Chuuk and Yap, (an estimated 60% Catholic & 40% Protestant). Religious groups with small followings include Baptists, Assemblies of God, Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Baháʼí Faith. There is a small group of Buddhists on Pohnpei, (0.7% Buddhist) (population as of 2010). Attendance at religious services is generally high; churches are well supported by their congregations and play a significant role in civil society. The Ahmadiyya Muslims were registered in Kosrae in July 2015, despite strong public resistance against Islam in the country.
Most immigrants are Filipino Catholics who have joined local Catholic churches. The Filipino Iglesia ni Cristo also has a church in Pohnpei. In the 1890s, on the island of Pohnpei, intermissionary conflicts and the conversion of clan leaders resulted in religious divisions along clan lines which persist today. Protestants are the majority on the western side of the island, while Catholics are the majority on the eastern side. Missionaries of many religious traditions are present and operate freely. The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. The US government received no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice in 2007.
Religious freedom.
The constitution of Micronesia states that laws establishing a state religion or impeding the freedom of religion may not be passed.
There are no registration requirements for religious groups. There is no religious education in public schools, but private religious schools are allowed so long as they also teach the curriculum established by the Department of Education.
A small community of Ahmadiyya Muslims (~20 people as of 2017) have reported discrimination, including both the denial of government services and vandalism against their property.


Ernst Sabila

Ernst (Ernest) Sabila (, born March 18, 1932) is a Belarusian Protestant religious leader, dissident and Gulag survivor.
Born in the village Dziehciarouka (now part of Minsk District), he studied at the Minsk Medical Institute.
In 1951, while still a student, he was arrested by Soviet authorities and accused of "religious and nationalist propaganda". He was sentenced to death but the sentence was then replaced by a 25 years labour camp imprisonment.
In 1964, after 13 years in a Gulag labour camp, Ernst Sabila was released and returned to religious activism in Belarus. From the moment of his release, he was under constant surveillance of the KGB.
In the 1970s, he managed to receive a part-time degree at the Minsk State Linguistic University.
In 1988, he became presbyter of the Evangelian church of Belarus. In 1989, pastor Sabila took part in the founding conference of the Belarusian Popular Front.
Since late 2000s (decade), Ernst Sabila is among the members of the revived Belarusian Christian Democracy.