POPULATION 793,341
MUSLIM (PREDOMINANTLY SUNNI WITH SOME SHIITE) 92 to 95 percent
OTHER (CHRISTIAN, HINDU, BAHAI) 5 to 8 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The State of Qatar, located on a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf, shares a border with two countries to the south: Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, and the United Arab Emirates. About 26 percent of Qatar's total population are citizens. The rest are foreign workers (mostly Sunni Muslims, with a minority of Shiite Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Bahais). No official census data exists concerning numbers of believers.

Most of Qatar's indigenous population professes Wahhabism, a form of the literalist Hanbali school of Sunni Islam (modeled after the teachings of the eighteenth-century reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab). Qatari's religious preference has historically been shaped by their Saudi neighbors, who are Wahhabi Muslims. Within Qatar's indigenous population is also a small Shiite minority, originating from southern Iran. The Christian community, comprising...