Encyclopedia of Law and Religion

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Edited by: Gerhard Robbers and W. Cole Durham

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In recent years, issues of freedom of religion or belief and state-religion relations have become increasingly important worldwide. The Encyclopedia of Law and Religion, unique in its breadth and global coverage, provides an important foundational resource for study of these issues. The encyclopedia covers the relation between law and religion in its various aspects, including those related to the role of religion in society, the relations between religion and state institutions, freedom of religion, legal aspects of religious traditions, the interaction between law and religion, and other issues at the junction of law, religion, and state.

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Afghanistan

(7,426 words)

Author(s): Thomas M. Krapf
Afghanistan is among the most impoverished countries in the world, on which methodologically sound statistical data are lacking. Hence conservative estimations have to serve as the basis of most of the figures cited in this entry. I. Social Facts The approximately 31 million population of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRAfg) is multi-ethnic: 42% Pashtun, 27% Tajik, 9% Hazara, 9% Uzbek, 4% Aimak, 3% Turkmen, 2% Baloch, and 4% other. Approximately 99% of the total population is Muslim. With a national growth rate of more than 3.…
Source: Encyclopedia of Law and Religion

African Union

(6,366 words)

Author(s): Avinash Govindjee | Kasturi Chetty
I. Introduction The exercise and limitation of religious freedom in the African context is a problematic and controversial issue. Indeed, it has been argued that imperial religions have violated the individual conscience and the communal expressions of Africans and their communities through their subversion of African religions, thereby robbing Africans of essential elements of their humanity: Christianity and Islam forcibly entered Africa not as guests but as masters. The two traditions came either as conquerors or on the backs of conquerors. As the…
Source: Encyclopedia of Law and Religion