Sierra Leone
Religion

Sierra Leone is officially a secular state. Islam and Christianity are the two main religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leonean Government is constitutionally forbidden from establishing a state religion, though Muslim and Christian prayers are usually held in the country at the beginning of major political occasions, including presidential inaugurations and the official opening of the new session of Parliament.

Surveys of the religious make up of Sierra Leone vary widely, though Muslims make up the majority of the population. Based on 2015 estimates of the population of Sierra Leone, 77% of the population are Muslims, 22% are Christians, and 1% practise African traditional religion.

According to 2020 estimates by the Pew Research Center 78.5% of Sierra Leone's population are Muslims (mostly Sunni), 20.4% are Christians (mostly Protestants) and 1.1% belong to a traditional African religion or other beliefs. The Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone estimated that 77% of Sierra Leone's population are Muslims, 21% are Christians, and 2% are followers of traditional African religions. Most of Sierra Leone's ethnic groups are Muslim majority, including the country's two largest ethnic groups: the Mende and Temne.

Sierra Leone is regarded as one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. Most of the major Muslim and Christian holidays are officially national holidays in the country, and religious conflict is rare.

The country is home to the Sierra Leone Inter-Religious Council, which is made up of both Christian and Muslim religious leaders to promote peace and tolerance throughout the country. The Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Maulid-un-Nabi (Birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) are observed as national holidays in Sierra Leone. The Christian holidays of Christmas, Boxing Day, Good Friday and Easter are also national holidays in Sierra Leone. In politics, the overwhelming majority of Sierra Leoneans vote for a candidate without regard of the candidate being a Muslim or a Christian. All of Sierra Leone's Heads of State have been Christians except Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who was a Muslim.

The overwhelming majority of Sierra Leonean Muslims are adherent to the Sunni tradition of Islam in practice. Most of the Mosques and Islamic schools across Sierra Leone are based on Sunni Islam. Ahmadiyya Muslims make up about 10% of the country's Muslim population. Sierra Leone has a vibrant Ahmaddiya Muslim population, especially in the southern city of Bo, which is home to a large Ahmadiyya Muslim population. There are five hundred Ahmadiyya Mosques across Sierra Leone. Shia Islam does not have a strong presence in Sierra Leone, and there are virtually no Shia Muslims in the country. Most Sierra Leonean Muslims of the Sunni and Ahmadiyya sect generally pray together in the same mosque. The vast majority of Sierra Leonean Muslims are adherent to the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. The Maliki school is by far the largest and most dominant Islamic school of jurisprudence across Sierra Leone. Many Ahmadiyya Muslims in Sierra Leone also follow the Maliki Jurisprudence.

The Sierra Leone Islamic Supreme Council is the highest Islamic religious organisation in Sierra Leone and is made up of the country's Imams, Islamic scholars, and other Islamic clerics across the country. Sheikh Muhammad Taha Jalloh is the president of the Sierra Leone Supreme Islamic Council. The United Council of Imams is an influential Islamic religious body in Sierra Leone that is made up of all imams of mosques throughout Sierra Leone. The president of the United Council of Imam is Sheikh Alhaji Muhammad Habib Sheriff. The two largest mosques in Sierra Leone are the Freetown Central Mosque and the Ghadafi Central Mosque (built by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi), both located in the capital Freetown.

The large majority of Sierra Leonean Christians are Protestant, of which the largest groups are the Wesleyan – Methodists. Other Christian Protestant denominations with significant presence in the country include Presbyterians, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Pentecostals. The Council of Churches is the Christian religious organisation that is made up of Protestant churches across Sierra Leone. Recently there has been an increase of Pentecostal churches, especially in Freetown.

In September 2017, a Sierra Leone-based Nigerian Pentecostal Christian pastor name Victor Ajisafe was arrested by the Sierra Leone Police and held in jail after he made controversial remarks against Islam and Sierra Leonean Muslims in particular at his church sermon in the capital Freetown. Ajisafe was apparently angry after a Zimbabwean Muslim cleric Mufti Menk had visited Sierra Leone and preached to large crowds. Many Christian organisations in Sierra Leone, including the Council of Churches, condemned Ajisafe's sermon against Islam and Muslims. Ajisafe's church was temporarily shut down by the Sierra Leone government and his church licence was temporarily suspended too. The incident brought religious tension in Sierra Leone, in a country known for its high level of religious tolerance, as many Sierra Leonean Muslims at home and abroad called for Ajisafe to be deported back to his home country of Nigeria. The pastor while in Sierra Leone police custody apologised to Sierra Leonean Muslims and to the government of Sierra Leone. After several days in jail, Ajisafe was released, his church licence was given back to him, and his church was later reopened under strict government conditions during several months of probation.

Non-denominational Protestants form a significant minority of Sierra Leone's Christian population. Catholics are the largest group of non-Protestant Christians in Sierra Leone, forming about 8% of Sierra Leone's population and 26% of the Christian population in Sierra Leone. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the two most prominent non-Trinitarian Christians in Sierra Leone, and they form a small but significant minority of the Christian population in Sierra Leone. A small community of Orthodox Christians resides in the capital Freetown.
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