Foreign clergy and missionaries are permitted to perform charitable works and to sell religious books. A small number of foreign Christian missionary groups operate in the country. These groups, which focus on humanitarian services in the education and health sectors, reportedly faced no harassment during the period covered by this report. Foreign missionary groups are licensed by the Government to run schools. Islamic law based on the Koran is used only with regard to family matters, and is administered by the Qadi.
Civil marriage is permitted only for non-Muslim foreigners.
Muslims are required to marry in a religious ceremony, and non-Muslim men may only marry a Muslim woman after converting to Islam. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report. There were no reports of religious detainees or prisoners. Although groups of Ethiopian Pentecostal Christians were arrested and detained for short periods of time in the past, there were no reports of such detentions during the period covered by this report. The past arrests reportedly were due to loud singing that disturbed neighbors, or to a general crackdown on illegal residents, rather than to the Ethiopians' religious faith.