Bahrain

BAHRAIN

A. THE COUNTRY

The State of Bahrain, in Asia, is a group of one larger and 32 smaller
barren islands in the Arabian Gulf and is linked to Saudi Arabia by a
causeway.  The constitutional monarchy has two levels of parliament, the
lower one elected.  The ruling family is Sunni, but two-thirds of the
indigenous population is Shi’a, perpetuating long running tensions.
Bahrain was the first to produce oil in the Gulf.  Unemployment and
poverty will become more challenging as the oil and water supplies
further dwindle.  Diversification efforts focus on finance/business
(freest economy in the Middle East), IT, healthcare and education.

B. THE PEOPLE

The population is ~808,000 and the official language Arabic.
The labour force is ~59% foreign, drawn from more than 50 nations.
~50% are Arab, ~15% Iranian, ~10% Bahraini Farsi, ~15% South Asian,
~7% East Asian, ~1.5% European, ~1.5% Other.

C. RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY/PENTECOSTALISM

Islam is the official religion.  Proselytizing Muslims is illegal.
Expatriate Christians and practitioners of other faiths are free to
worship together in churches.  With limited compounds, though, dozens
of congregations must share the same building.
~83,23% are Muslim, ~9.81% claim to be Christian, ~6% Hindu, ~0.5%
Non-religious, ~0.21% Baha’i, ~0.1% Other, ~0.08% Jewish, ~0.05%
Buddhist, ~0.02% Ethnoreligionist.
In the Christian category:
~5.83% are Catholics, ~2.02% Independent, ~1.16% Protestant, ~0.37%
Anglican, ~0.3% Orthodox, 0.1% Unaffiliated, ~0.02% are considered
‘marginal’.
Evangelicals represent ~2.9% of the population.
Charismatics represent ~2.5% and of those ~0.7% are Pentecostals.

Donna Siemens

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org

Operation World, Jason Mandryk. Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010.