Religion in Cameroon
and Islam are the main religions in Cameroon, with significant minorities of the adherents of traditional religions. Christian churches and Muslim centers of various denominations operate freely throughout Cameroon while the traditionalists operate in their shrines and temples which are also becoming popular today. A social analysis of the Religious situation in Cameroon by United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Wayi E. Mico revealed that the Christian population is divided between Roman Catholics, Protestants, and other Christian denominations including Jehovah's Witnesses. The vast majority of the Muslims are Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence, with approximately 12% Ahmadiyya and 3% Shia. Christians and Muslims are found in every region, although Muslims are concentrated in the northern provinces.
The two Anglophone provinces of the western region are largely Protestant, and the Francophone provinces of the southern and western regions are largely Catholic and Evangelicals. In the northern provinces, the locally dominant Fulani and other ethnic groups such as Kanuri, Hausa, and Baggara are Muslims. The rest of the ethnic demography scholarly defined as Kirdi, are mixed between a Muslim majority and a Christian minority. The Bamoun ethnic group is largely Muslim. Traditional indigenous religious beliefs are practiced in rural areas throughout the country but rarely are practiced publicly in cities, in part because many indigenous religious groups are intrinsically local in character.
There are about 4,000 adherents of the Bahá'í Faith in the country. By 2001 the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly was registered with the Government of Cameroon as one of the few non-Christian foreign religions. There is a tiny population of Jews in Cameroon who have established ties with the wider global Jewish community. A community of approximately 50 people practice some form of Judaism in the country today .Hinduism is the faith practiced by some South Asian migrants. The Constitution provides for freedom of religion in Cameroon, and the government generally respects this right in practice. The country is generally characterized by a high degree of religious tolerance.
