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Religious groups and nonreligion

Religious minorities

Sociologically speaking, the following groups are present in Greece: Muslims: 300 000 à 400 000, among which 100 000 in Thrace (North of Greece) and 200 000 à 300 000 immigrants concentrated (...)

Sociologically speaking, the following groups are present in Greece:
 Muslims: 300 000 à 400 000, among which 100 000 in Thrace (North of Greece) and 200 000 à 300 000 immigrants concentrated especially in great urban centres
 Catholics: 50 000
 Jehovah’s Witnesses: 46 000
 Protestants: 25 000
 Jews: 5 000
 Old Calendarists: 700, 000 to 1 million (traditionalist Orthodoxy that underwent a schism with the New Calendarist Western Christians in 1923)

Source : Greek Helsinki Monitor/GHM - Minority Rights Group – Greece/MRG-G, "Religious Freedom in Greece", septembre 2002.

D 19 September 2012    ALina Molokotos ASamim Akgönül

Muslim population

Immigrant Muslims have had an important presence in Greece since the 1990s as part of the general flow of immigration. Muslim immigrants come from Albania (after 1990) and from African and Asian (...)

Immigrant Muslims have had an important presence in Greece since the 1990s as part of the general flow of immigration. Muslim immigrants come from Albania (after 1990) and from African and Asian countries (after 2000). Muslims in Greece are estimated 350,000-400,000 (unofficial estimate). According to a Pew survey, conducted in 2016, the percentage of Muslims in Greece is estimated at 5.7%, i.e. around 550,000. The data from Pew is based on estimations from the 2001 census which, however, does not include religious affiliation.

Albanians are included in both the above estimations, however, as it is usually mentioned by Muslims themselves, most Albanians or at least a large majority of them are not religious. One should therefore be cautious about counting them as part of the country’s Muslim population. This is supported by a 2020 survey conducted by Dianeosis according to which participants of Albanian origin stated that they are primarily Christians (58.9%), not religious (32.2%) or Muslims (8.4%).

Muslims of Greek citizenship (approx. 120,000) are mostly Turkish-speaking and express Turkish national feelings. About 20,000 of them have Pomak (a Bulgarian dialect) as their mother tongue, partly expressing an ethnic Pomak identity, often along with a Turkish (national) identity, and about 5,000 speak Roma (partly expressing an ethnic Roma identity), although most of the Muslim Roma are monolingual Turkish speakers. As religion and mother tongue ceased to be a question in the national census after 1951, all the above figures are rough estimates. Muslims of Greek citizenship are mainly concentrated in Thrace, Athens and Thessaloniki, and Rhodes and Kos (Dodecanese Islands). It is estimated that more than 65% of the overall Muslim population (mostly immigrants) is concentrated in the greater Athens metropolitan area.

Sunni Islam is the most widespread form of Islam and is practised by migrants from North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Arab countries and by the Muslim minority in Thrace. Shi’ism is far less widespread, existing mainly among Kurdish, Pakistani and Iranian communities, while Alevism is found mostly among Turks and Kurds. Ahmadis are mainly Pakistanis. Individuals and small groups espousing Salafis, Tablighis and Sufi forms of Islamic religiosity are also present in Greece.

Approx. 300 mosques in Thrace, two in Kos and one in Rhodes, are officially registered as mosques and around 100 unofficial prayer houses function in the greater Athens region, in Thessaloniki and other cities. Five officially registered mosques are operational in Athens, Piraeus and Thiva.

Sources:
 Pew Research Center
 Dianeosis
 TSITSELIKIS, Konstantinos and SAKELLARIOU, Alexandros, “Greece”, in S.Müssig, E.Račius, S.Akgönül, A.Alibašić, J.S. Nielsen, O.Scharbrodt (Eds.) Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp. 300-315.

D 9 February 2023    AAlexandros Sakellariou

Non-religion

The rise of non-religion and atheism during the recent years worldwide, especially what has been called the ‘new atheism’, is now a phenomenon observable in Greek society too. The presence of (...)

The rise of non-religion and atheism during the recent years worldwide, especially what has been called the ‘new atheism’, is now a phenomenon observable in Greek society too. The presence of atheism and non-religion was promoted by the Greek translations of all the major works of the protagonists of the international movement (R. Dawkins, K. Hitchens, and S. Harris) as well as by the publication of other books in favour of atheism, including scientific ones. Aside from that, articles about atheism have been published in the mainstream media, and news reports have been presented on prime time television broadcasting. As one could expect, the last few yearshave seen the emergence of many websites, forums and blogs that support atheist ideas. A last but crucial point was the founding of the Atheist Union of Greece (AUG) in 2012. AUG counts about 2,300 members and is quite active for the secularisation of the state and society through a series of activities (organising conferences, participating in anti-racist festivals and gay pride, sending letters to political parties and the government, making publications, taking legal action, etc.).

According to Eurobarometer (2005), 81% of the population believes that there is a god, 12% that there is some sort of spirit or life force and 3% neither from the above. In another opinion poll (Public Issue 2008), 7% stated that religion is not at all important in their lives, while 14% said that religion is not that important. More recently (Kapa Research 2015), 81.4% said that they are Orthodox Christians while 14.7% said that they are atheists, a number much higher than the 1.8% mentioned in the same company’s opinion poll in 2006. In the most recent surveys on the issue conducted by Dianeosis (2022), it is mentioned that 17.2% do not believe in God, while in 2016 (Dianeosis 2016) this number was 15.8% and in 2017 19.3%. It is important to mention that these numbers are much higher among ages 17–24, 33.6% in 2017 and 34.2% in 2022. According to the most recent wave of the World Values Survey (2018), 2.9% of Greeks identified themselves as atheists (a number that reaches 8.5% for ages 18–29), 11.9% as non-religious (with 15.9% for ages 18–29), while 81.4% said that they are religious. In the same survey, 6.2% said they do not believe in God, which for ages 18–29 was 14%.

Sources:
 Sakellariou, A. (2022). “Young people and the process of secularisation in contemporary Greek society”, Religions, 13 (10), Special Issue: Secularism and Religious Traditions, J.Kulska & A.M.Solarz (eds.)
 Sakellariou, A. (2022). “Greek society in transition: Trajectories from Greek Orthodoxy to Atheism”, in A.-L.Zwilling & H.Årsheim (eds.), Nonreligion in Late Modern Societies, Cham: Springer, pp.129-150.

D 27 July 2023    AAlexandros Sakellariou

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