Religion in Egypt is a framework of many aspects of social life. In Egypt religion
was based on practice of polytheism i.e. worship of many deities. There were almost
2000 gods and goddesses in Egypt among which some were the famous that were worshipped
throughout the country while some were the local deities.
Among the deities worshipped in Egypt, majority of them were the glorified
regional spirits and were not honored outside their regional cult. The national
deities were mainly associated with the royal families only. But sometime there
was a blend of two deities in one and that created lots of confusion. Amon and
Re were the perfect example of such case. Amon was god of wind and symbolized
hidden forces of nature while Ra deity was the representation of sun and symbolized
ubiquitous power of creation. Both the deities were the symbols of creative
powers of universe.
However the nucleus of Egyptian religion is Ma'at-a symbol of peace, order
and justice on cosmic scale. Beside of the gods and goddesses, a great king
of Egypt named Osiris, his wife Isis and their great son Horus came to be worshipped
as the holy trinity. It was only after the invasion of Roman that subsidized
the native ancient Egyptian religion.
Christianity came in Egypt along with the Byzantine rule, which was later swept,
to a limited area by the Islam. Islam made its visible prints on the land of
Egypt with the invasion of Arabs. Arabs brought with them the Sunni form of
Islam and from till then Islam is the official religion of Egypt.
Present Egypt is predominantly a Muslim country with 90% of its total population
is the adherent of Islam. The remaining 10% are the followers of Christianity,
Judaism or are the non-followers. Worship of the ancient Egyptian gods has disappeared
completely.
The Muslim population in Egypt is largely Sunni. Islam in Egypt is a complex
and diverse religion. However Christians are mainly Coptic Orthodox along with
the les numbers of followers of Coptic Catholic Church. The Jewish community
has just around 200 persons residing in Egypt.
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