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CHRISTIANITY See Also: Christianity in Ethiopia , rumored to hold the original Ark Of The Covenant ]] Ethiopia is the second-oldest Christian state in the world, after Armenia . Saint Frumentius of Tyre is said to have converted the King of Axum , King Ezana during the fourth century AD. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church , an Oriental Orthodox Church which is the largest Christian denomination in Ethiopia (it claims that 50% of the Ethiopian population are church members) and was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, is the only pre-colonial Orthodox church in Sub-Saharan Africa . According to the 1994 Census, 61.6% of the Ethiopian population is Christian {Link without Title} (these figures further state that 50.6% are Ethiopian Orthodox , various Protestant denominations (such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church , P'ent'ay , and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus , are 10.1%, and the and Ethiopian Catholics constitute 0.9% of the population). The CIA World Factbook , however, claims that 35-40% of the country is Christian, and that Islam is the most-practiced religion in the country. ISLAM See Also: Islam in Ethiopia According to data from the CIA Factbook, Muslims constitute about 45-50% of the population (the 1994 census gives a figure of 33%). Most Ethiopian Muslims are and Afar regions as well as the southern parts of the Oromia region. JUDAISM See Also: Beta Israel .]] The Beta Israel, also known as the ''Falashas'' (though this term is considered pejorative), are a long-isolated group of during the 19th and 20th centuries, and were accepted as Jews by the Israel i government in 1975. After this, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon , conducted in 1984 and 1991, respectively, airlifted the vast majority of the Ethiopian Jewish population to Israel, where there is currently a population of 105,000 Beta Israel. A small Jewish community still exists in Ethiopia, although it is mostly composed of Falash Mura , Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the past, and as such have not been recognized as Jews by the State of Isael, but have returned to Judaism (the Falash Mura now number some 22,000). ANIMISM An estimated 12% of the Ethiopian population holds traditional Animist beliefs, according to the CIA World Factbook (5.6% of the population holds "traditional" beliefs,according to the 1994 census). RELIGIOUS POLITICS Freedom of religion is provided by the Ethiopian constitution, although in certain localities, this practice is not always respected. There is no state religion, it is forbidden to form political parties based upon religion, and all religious groups are required to register with the government (and renew their registration once every three years). It is a crime in Ethiopia to incite one religion against another. There is some tension between members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Protestant Christians, as well as between the Ethiopian Orthodox and Muslims. SOURCES
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