page_title: Religion in Sierra Leone
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Sierra Leone
caption_attribution_description: English: Gbendemdu Mosque and Church on your left as you go to Outamba-Kilimi National Park in Sierra Leone
context_page_description: Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leone 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 inauguration.
  According to a 2010 estimates by the Pew Research Center 78% of Sierra Leone's population are Muslims, 20.9 are Christians and 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 religion. 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. Muslims and Christians collaborate and interact with each other peacefully.
context_section_description: Sierra Leone is officially a secular state, although Islam and Christianity are the two main and dominant religions in the country. The constitution of Sierra Leone provides for freedom of religion and the Sierra Leone Government generally protects it. The Sierra Leone 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 inauguration.
  According to a 2010 estimates by the Pew Research Center 78% of Sierra Leone's population are Muslims (mostly Sunni), 20.9 are Christians (mostly Protestants) and 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 religion. 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. Muslims and Christians collaborate and interact with each other peacefully. Religious violence is very rare in the country. Even during the Sierra Leonean Civil War people were never targeted because of their religion.
  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 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 vast majority of Sierra Leonean Muslims are adherent to the Sunni tradition of Islam. Most of the Mosque and Islamic schools across Sierra Leone are based on Sunni Islam.  A significant portion of Sierra Leonean Muslims, at 10 percent of the country's Muslim population are adherents to the Ahmadiyya Islam. Sierra Leone has a vibrant Ahmaddiya Muslim population, and there are five hundred Ahmaddiyya Mosque across Sierra Leone. Shia Muslims form a very small percentage, at less than half of one percent of Sierra Leone's Muslim population. Most of Sierra Leonean Muslims of the Sunni and Ahmadiyya sect regularly pray together in the same Mosque. The Maliki school is by far the most dominant Islamic school of jurisprudence across Sierra Leone and is based within Sunni Islam, though many Ahmadiyya Muslims in Sierra Leone also follow the Maliki Jurisprudence.
  The Sierra Leone Islamic Supreme Council, is the highest Islamic religious organization 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 leader Muammar Gaddafi), both located in the capital Freetown.
  Among the present most highly  prominent Sierra Leonean Muslim scholars and preachers are Sheikh Abu Bakarr Cotco Kamara, Sheikh Muhammad Taha Jalloh, Sheikh Umarr S. Kanu, Sheikh Ahmad Tejan Sillah, Sheikh Saeedu Rahman, and Sheikh Muhammad Habib Sheriff. All of the Sierra Leonean Muslim Scholars mention above are Sunni Muslims, except Sheikh Ahmad Tejan Sillah, who is a Shia Muslim; and Sheikh Saeedu Rahman, who is an Ahmaddiya Muslim.
  The large majority of
caption: Mosque and church in Sierra Leone
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