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Islam is the dominant religion in Egypt, with approximately 90% of Egyptians identifying as Muslims. [1] The majority of Egyptian Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam, [2] while a small minority adhere to Shia Islam. [3] Since 1980, Islam has served as Egypt's state religion. [4]
Islam has been the state religion in Egypt since the amendment of the second article of the Egyptian constitution in the year 1980, before which Egypt was recognized as a secular country. The vast majority of Egyptian Muslims are Sunni, with a small Mu'tazila, Shia Twelvers and the Shia Ismaili communities making up the remainder. [66]
Sunni Islam [a] (/ ˈ s uː n i /; Arabic: أهل السنة, romanized: Ahl as-Sunnah, lit. 'The People of the Sunnah') is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims, and simultaneously the largest religious denomination in the world.
The Hanafi school is the largest of the four traditional Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, followed by approximately 30% of Sunni Muslims worldwide. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] It is the main school of jurisprudence in the Balkans , Turkey , Lebanon , Egypt , the Levant , Central Asia and South Asia , in addition to parts of Russia and China .
A wide range of Islamic religious expression existed in Egypt during the early Mamluk era, namely Sunni Islam and its major madhab s (schools of jurisprudence) and different Sufi orders, but also small communities of Ismai'li Shia Muslims, particularly in Upper Egypt.
The four Sunni Imams founded the four madhhab (schools of thought) recognized in Sunni Islam. While they agree on the foundational principles of fiqh according to the Sunni narrative, their interpretations of certain legal and practical matters differ, which led to the development of the four distinct madhhab.
Egyptian religion produced the temples and tombs which are ancient Egypt's most enduring monuments, but it also influenced other cultures. In pharaonic times many of its symbols, such as the sphinx and winged solar disk , were adopted by other cultures across the Mediterranean and Near East, as were some of its deities, such as Bes .
The Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun (with Ikhwan الإخوان brethren) or Muslim Brotherhood, is an organisation that was founded by Egyptian scholar Hassan al-Banna, a graduate of Dar al-Ulum. With its various branches, it is the largest Sunni movement in the Arab world, and an affiliate is often the largest opposition party in many Arab nations.