"available. State atheism in the Soviet Union was known as ""gosateizm"". Albania was declared an atheist state by Enver Hoxha. Religion in Albania was subordinated in the interest of nationalism during periods of national revival, when it was identified as foreign predation to Albanian culture. During the late 19th century and also when Albania became a state, religions were suppressed in order to better unify Albanians. This nationalism was also used to justify the communist stance of state atheism between 1967 and 1991. This policy was mainly applied and felt within the borders of the present Albanian state, thus producing"
"According to Geoffrey Blainey, leaders of the national Orthodox Churches in Romania and Bulgaria had to be ""cautious and submissive"". Albania under Enver Hoxha became in 1967 the first (and to date only) formally declared atheist state, going far beyond what most other countries had attempted—completely prohibiting religious observance and systematically repressing and persecuting adherents. The right to religious practice was restored in the fall of communism in 1991. In 1967, Hoxha's regime conducted a campaign to extinguish religious life in Albania and by year's end over two thousand religious buildings were closed or converted to other uses and religious"
"6 February 1967, the Party began to promote secularism over Abrahamic religions. Hoxha, who had declared a ""Cultural and Ideological Revolution"" after being partly inspired by China's Cultural Revolution, encouraged communist students and workers to use more forceful tactics to discourage religious practices, although violence was initially condemned. According to Hoxha, the surge in anti-theist activity began with the youth. The result of this ""spontaneous, unprovoked movement"" was the closing of all 2,169 churches and mosques in Albania. State atheism became official policy, and Albania was declared the world's first atheist state. Town and city names which echoed Abrahamic religious"
"lost their formally prominent roles in public life. Children were taught atheism, and clergy were imprisoned by the thousands. Albania under Enver Hoxha became, in 1967, the first (and to date only) formally declared atheist state, going far beyond what most other countries had attempted—completely prohibiting religious observance and systematically repressing and persecuting adherents. Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution of 1976 stipulated, ""The state recognizes no religion, and supports atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people."" The right to religious practice was restored with the fall of communism in 1991. Further post-war communist"
"a simple secular state to, in 1967, an entity upholding state atheism by which all public practice of religion was banned, although some private practice survived. Enver Hoxha exploited Pashko Vasa's ""O moj Shqypni"" and implemented its stanza ""the faith of the Albanians is Albanianism"" literally as state policy. The communist regime proclaimed that the only religion of the Albanians was ""Albanianism"". The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1946 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses. Many clergy and believers were tried, tortured, and executed, and all foreign Roman Catholic priests, monks, and"
"""religious freedom or tolerance"", though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth (see also the Soviet or committee of the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Scientific and Political Knowledge or Znanie which was until 1947 called The League of the Militant Godless). Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes led to imprisonment. The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by"
"only state to have declared itself officially fully atheist. In some other Communist states such as Romania, the Romanian Orthodox Church as an organization enjoyed relative freedom and even prospered, albeit under strict secret police control. That, however, did not rule out demolishing churches and monasteries as part of broader systematization (urban planning), and state persecution of individual believers. As an example of the latter, Romania stands out as a country which ran a specialized institution where many Orthodox (along with people of other faiths) were subjected to psychological punishment or torture and mind control experimentation in order to force"
"the Orthodox faith adhered to by most ethnic Greeks was banned entirely alongside the other religious faiths all over the country. The process started in 1949, with the confiscation and nationalisation of Church property and further intensified in 1967, when the state launched its atheistic campaign. However, some private practice managed to survived. This campaign was also part of the state persecution against the identity of the Greek people; as many of their traditions were closely related to Eastern Christianity. The ban was lifted in 1990 just in time for Christians to observe traditional Christmas rites. Thus, one of the"
"religious life in Albania. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions were either closed down or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, or workshops by the end of 1967. By May 1967, religious institutions had been forced to relinquish all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines in Albania, many of which were converted into cultural centers for young people. As the literary monthly Nendori reported the event, the youth had thus ""created the first atheist nation in the world."" Clerics were publicly vilified and humiliated, their vestments were taken and desecrated. More than 200 clerics"
"or tolerance"", though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth. Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes lead to imprisonment. The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organised religions were never outlawed. Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers along with execution included torture being sent to prison camps, labour camps or mental hospitals. The result"
"state atheism from 1967 to 1991. The Agrarian Reform Law of August 1945 nationalized most property of religious institutions, including the estates of mosques, monasteries, orders, and dioceses. Many clergy and believers were tried and some were executed. All foreign Roman Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were expelled in 1946. Religious communities or branches that had their headquarters outside the country, such as the Jesuit and Franciscan orders, were henceforth ordered to terminate their activities in Albania. Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with the education of the young, because that had been made the exclusive province"
"long history of state atheism, whereby those seeking social success generally had to profess atheism and to stay away from houses of worship; this trend became especially militant during the middle Stalinist era from 1929 to 1939. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress public religious expression over wide areas of its influence, including places such as central Asia. Currently, only China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam are officially atheist. A communist state, in popular usage, is a state with a form of government characterized by one-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a"
"Albania were represented from early on within the communist leadership group such as leader Enver Hoxha 1908–1985), his deputy Mehmet Shehu (1913–1981) and others. Inspired by Pashko Vasa's late 19th century poem for the need to overcome religious differences through Albanian unity, Hoxha took the stanza ""the faith of the Albanians is Albanianism"" and implemented it literally as state policy. In 1967 therefore the communist regime declared Albania the only non-religious country in the world, banning all forms of religious practice in public. The Muslim Sunni and Bektashi clergy alongside their Catholic and Orthodox counterparts suffered severe persecution and to"
"Union to unite all of the people of the world under Communist rule (see Communist International). This included the Eastern European bloc countries as well as the Balkan States. Since some of these Slavic states tied their ethnic heritage to their ethnic churches, both the peoples and their church were targeted by the Soviet and its form of State atheism. The Soviets' official religious stance was one of ""religious freedom or tolerance"", though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth. Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes resulted in imprisonment. The Soviet Union was the first state"
"passed Freedom of Religion Bills primarily to prevent people from converting to Christianity. Orissa was the first state to bring such law named as 'Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967'. It was followed by Madhya Pradesh in 1968 and Arunachal Pradesh in 1978. Catholics protested against this saying that propagation of their faith was an important part of Christianity. Both laws enacted by the Orissa and Madhya Pradesh high courts were challenged stating Article 25 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court supported the laws saying, ""What is freedom for one is freedom for the other in equal measure and there"
"to relinquish all 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines in Albania, many of which were converted into cultural centres for young people. As the literary monthly Nëndori reported the event, the youth had thus ""created the first atheist nation in the world."" A major center for anti-religious propaganda was the National Museum of Atheism () in Shkodër, the city viewed by the government as the most religiously conservative. After the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985, his successor, Ramiz Alia, adopted a relatively tolerant stance toward religious practice, referring to it as ""a personal and family matter."" Émigré clergymen were"
"groups, most often through the registration process. The Constitution also provides for the equality of all religions before the law and the separation of church and state; however, the Government did not always respect this provision. In November 2006, the Government eliminated the value-added tax on religious products sold by religious organizations. The Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations ( the 1997 Law) declares all religions equal before the law, prohibits government interference in religion, and establishes simple registration procedures for religious groups. The country is by law a secular state without a state religion. The preamble to"
"in 1935. Beginning in 1946 under communist rule in Albania, religion was first curtailed, and then public religious practice was outlawed in 1967 with the adoption of state atheism by Enver Hoxha although some private practice survived, and remained so until restrictions were first eased in 1985 and then removed in 1990 under his successor Ramiz Alia. Polling by UNDP showed that large majorities of Albanians agree that nationalism, lack of religion and the ban of religion during communist rule have helped build the foundations of religious tolerance. Nowadays, estimations of the size of the irreligious population vary widely. The"
"ancient Greece, in ancient Israel, in Christian countries during the Middle Ages and in Muslim countries. Today, atheism is a crime in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and some other Muslim countries. Victims of Muslim persecution include Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahá'ís, Serers and Atheists. Muslim persecution of fellow Muslims include as victims Shia, Ahmadis, Sufi, Alevis and Salafis. State atheism has been defined by David Kowalewski as the official ""promotion of atheism"" by a government, typically by active suppression of religious freedom and practice. It is a misnomer referring to a government's anti-clericalism, which opposes religious institutional power and"
"Survey (ARIS) ranked Vermont as the state with the highest percentage of residents claiming no religion at 34%, but a 2009 Gallup poll ranked Oregon as the state with the highest percentage of residents identifying with ""No religion, Atheist, or Agnostic"", at 24.6%. Unchurched Belt The Unchurched Belt is a region in the far Northwestern United States that has low rates of religious participation. The term derives from ""Bible Belt"" and the notion of the unchurched. The term was first applied to the West Coast of the United States in 1985 by Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, who found"
"the Counterreformation. The Czech Republic (Bohemia) was historically the first Protestant country, then violently recatholised, and now overwhelmingly non-religious, nevertheless the largest number of religious people are Catholic (10.3%). Romania and Serbia are mostly Eastern Orthodox with significant Protestant and Catholic minorities. Before the Holocaust (1941–45), there was also a sizeable Ashkenazi Jewish community in the region, numbering approximately 16.7 million people. In some of these countries, there is a number of atheists, undeclared and non-religious people: the Czech Republic (non-religious 34.2% and undeclared 45.2%), Germany (non-religious 38%), Slovenia (atheist 30.2%), Luxembourg (25% non-religious), Switzerland (20.1%), Hungary (27.2% undeclared, 16.7%"
"and theists were tried, tortured, and executed. All foreign Roman Catholic clergy were expelled in 1946. Albania was the only country that ever officially banned religion. Authorities in the People's Republic of Romania aimed to move towards an atheistic society, in which religion would be considered as the ideology of the bourgeoisie; the régime also set to propagate among the laboring masses in science, politics and culture to help them fight superstition and mysticism, and initiated an anti-religious campaign aimed at reducing the influence of religion in society. After the communist takeover in 1948, some church personnel were imprisoned for"
"in states of disrepair. Of the 53 Bektashi tekkes, 6 survived. Article 37 was added to the Albanian constitution in 1967, which read: The state recognizes no religion and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people Young people were encouraged to attack mosques, churches and tekkes and to turn in remaining clergy to the authorities. Clergy who were still alive by 1967 and had survived twenty years of persecution, were killed or sent to hard labour camps. Most mosques had their minarets destroyed, tombstones with any religious symbols were overturned,"
"victories in the East saw religion purged by atheist regimes across China, North Korea and much of Indo-China. In 1949, China became a Communist state under the leadership of Mao Zedong's Communist Party of China. China itself had been a cradle of religious thought since ancient times, being the birthplace of Confucianism and Daoism, and Buddhists having arrived in the first century AD. Under Mao, China became officially atheist, and though some religious practices were permitted to continue under State supervision, religious groups deemed a threat to order have been suppressed—as with Tibetan Buddhism from 1959 and Falun Gong in"
"The Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed in 1914, Brethren Church in 1942, New Jerusalem Church in 1907, Christian Science in 1950, Jehovah's Witnesses in 1951 and Assemblies of God in 2000. Mauritius gained independence in 1968 and there was no state religion in Mauritius defined in the constitution. The nation had no indigenous population nor any indigenous tribes or religion. The religious organizations present at the time of independence, namely, Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, Presbyterian Church, Seventh-day Adventist, Hindus and Muslims are recognized by parliamentary decree. The constitution and other laws protect freedom of religion. The groups recognized"
"possessing Bibles. In the Mongolian People's Republic, after the invasion by Japanese troops of 1936, the Soviet Union deployed its troops in 1937, undertaking an offensive against the Buddhist religion. In parallel, a Soviet-style purge campaign was launched in the Communist Party and the Mongolian army. The Mongol leader at that time was Khorloogiin Choibalsan, follower of Joseph Stalin, who emulated many of the policies that Stalin developed in the Soviet Union. The purges succeeded in virtually eliminating Lamaism and cost an estimated thirty to thirty-five thousand lives. Officially, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an atheist state as declared"
"freedom of religious belief"". Article 20 of the 1947 Constitution states: ""Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State, nor exercise any political authority"". The United States privatized shrines and created the term ""State Shinto"" during the occupation of Japan to reform native Japanese ideas of church and state, under the belief that it had supported the rise of Japanese militarism before and during World War II. In postwar years, the issue of the separation of Shinto and state arose in the Self-Defense Force Apotheosis Case. In 1973, Nakaya Takafumi, a"
"enough that the Full Gospel Believers Church (FBGC) was created in 1967. Pentecostal practices eventually affected other Protestant denominations in Ethiopia, particularly the Lutheran church. The appeal for an officially recognized Pentecostal organization was rejected by the royal government. This was only the beginning of political repression which accelerated in the 1970s. On one 1972 Sunday alone, 250 worshipers were arrested. In 1979, the Derg government shut down the Addis Ababa FBGC church. In the 1969, an Ethiopian minister named Teklemariam Gezahagne converted to Oneness Pentecostalism. In 1972, the government forced Oneness United Pentecostal Church missionaries, along with those from"
"backwardness. Student agitators combed the countryside, likewise forcing Albanians and Greeks to quit practicing their faith. All churches, mosques, monasteries and other religious institutions were closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops. Clergy were imprisoned, and owning an icon became an offense that could be prosecuted under Albanian law. The campaign culminated in an announcement that Albania had become the world's first atheistic state, a feat touted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements. Christians were prohibited from mentioning Orthodoxy even in their own homes, visiting their parents’ graves, light memorial candles or make the sign of the Cross."
"officially an atheist state, and the persecution of religion by the Khmer Rouge was matched in severity only by the persecution of religion in the communist states of Albania and North Korea."" All religions were banned, and the repression of adherents of Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism was extensive. It is estimated that up to 50,000 Buddhist monks were massacred by the Khmer Rouge. Ideology played an important role in the genocide. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge aimed to bring Cambodia back to its ""mythic past"" of the powerful Khmer Empire, to stop corrupting influences like foreign aid and western"
"to a survey measuring religious identification in the European Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer, 7% of EU citizens identify themselves as atheists. As of 2012, the top eight European countries with people who viewed themselves as ""atheists"" were the Czech Republic (20%), France (16%), Slovenia (16%), Estonia (15%), Sweden (13%), Spain (10%), Germany (9%) and Denmark (9%). Heathenism or Esetroth (Icelandic: ""Ásatrú""), and the organised form Odinism, are names for the modern folk religion of the Germanic nations. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 300 people registered as Heathen in England and Wales. However, many Heathens followed the advice of"
"any religion, and 16% said they are non-believers. In Ukraine, 96.1% of the Ukrainian population is Christian. In Lithuania, the only Catholic country which was once a Soviet republic, a 2005 report stated that 79% of Lithuanians belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. Religion in Albania was subordinated to the interests of nationalism during periods of national revival, when it was identified as foreign predation to Albanian culture. During the late nineteenth century, and also when Albania became a state, religions were suppressed in order to better unify Albanians. This nationalism was also used to justify the communist stance of"
"campaign to extinguish religious life in Albania, claiming that religion had divided the Albanian nation and kept it mired in backwardness. Student agitators combed the countryside, forcing Albanians to quit practicing their faith. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions were closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops by year's end. A special decree abrogated the charters by which the country's main religious communities had operated. The campaign culminated in an announcement that Albania had become the world's first atheistic state, a feat trumpeted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements. Traditional"