page_title: Irreligion in Lebanon
hierarchical_section_title: Irreligion in Lebanon
caption_attribution_description: English: Lebanon religious groups distribution
context_page_description: Irreligion is very uncommon in Lebanon, as Islam and Christianity are the predominant faiths. It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in Lebanon as they are not officially counted in the census of the country. The Lebanese Constitution guarantees the freedom of belief. There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Lebanon, thus many Lebanese atheists communicate via the internet. It is difficult not to have your religion stated at birth, although a baby made history in doing so in 2014.
  Lebanon's last official population census - taken in 1932 during the French Mandate of Greater Lebanon - states that 0% of the Lebanese population is atheist. Consequently, none of the government's parliamentary seats are reserved for that share of the electorate.
  Most modern estimates still do not include any atheist communities or districts in Lebanon.
  Atheists may not marry in Lebanon as marriage must be performed in either a Church or a Mosque. Publicly blaspheming God is punishable with a minimum of 1 month up to 1 year of prison time according to article 473 of the Penal Code of Lebanon.
context_section_description: Irreligion is very uncommon in Lebanon, as Islam and Christianity are the predominant faiths. It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in Lebanon as they are not officially counted in the census of the country.  The Lebanese Constitution guarantees the freedom of belief.  There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Lebanon, thus many Lebanese atheists communicate via the internet. It is difficult not to have your religion stated at birth, although a baby made history in doing so in 2014.
  Lebanon's last official population census - taken in 1932 during the French Mandate of Greater Lebanon - states that 0% of the Lebanese population is atheist.  Consequently, none of the government's parliamentary seats are reserved for that share of the electorate.
  
  Most modern estimates still do not include any atheist communities or districts in Lebanon.  
  Atheists may not marry in Lebanon as marriage must be performed in either a Church or a Mosque.  Publicly blaspheming God is punishable with a minimum of 1 month up to 1 year of prison time according to article 473 of the Penal Code of Lebanon.  The exact wording of the clause is that "blaspheming God publicly" is illegal.  In addition, disrespecting Christianity or Islam is punishable by a minimum of 3 years to a maximum of 6 years of jail time according to article 474 of the Penal Code.
  Life in Lebanon is largely divided along sectarian lines.  Schools, housing, and political parties are generally segregated along religious lines.  For example, East Beirut is and West Beirut are almost exclusively Christian and Muslim, respectively.  Muslims and Christians have different civil codes, meaning that the punishment for a crime and other civil procedure (like divorce) may be different for a Christian than a Muslim.
caption: Lebanon religious groups distribution
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5500", "Image ImageLength": "7097", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:02:05 13:00:23", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "378", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7365", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2700", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3484"}