Compare and Contrast on the United States and Turkey on Religion, Essay

Compare and Contrast on the United States and Turkey on Religion, Politics, Social Behavior and Economic Development - Essay Example In light of this, the American adult population can be grouped into more than then twelve, earlier stated, religious traditions. In turn, this can be divided into hundreds of religious groups with distinct followings and values from the same American population. Studies show that over 70% of the American population is affiliated with one form or another of the Christian religion, while 5% are affiliated with other major and minor world religions, and the remainder is not affiliated with any religious group whosoever (The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008). With this in mind, the largest Christian population belongs to protestant groups with roughly a slight population of over 50%. However, this only applies to the adult domain, thus leaving out children and a significant population of the American youth. In addition, despite having a majority, Protestantism is not homogenous religious practice among American as it is divided into three distinct groups. These include evangelical protestants, mainline protestants and historically black protestants with roughly 26%, 18% and 7% respectively, of the population following (The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008). In addition, the protestant religious organization comprises of divers e denominational affiliations, such as Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostal that work in an integrated manner with the three main divisions of Protestantism. Other than this, the non-protestant population of the Christians falls under Catholicism accounting for roughly 24%. This is while; there exist Mormon groups and Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as Orthodox churches. Other religious groups in the USA include Jews, Buddhist and Muslims, as well as other world religions such as Hinduism and Zoroastrians. The rest of the population remains unreligious, which is unlike the religious organization of the Republic of Turkey. Unlike the united states of America where one can practice whatever religion they find appealing, the Republic of Turkey is widely dominated by the Islamic religion that cover the largest population in the country. In this regard, religiously, one’s religion has been a requirement to be stated on one’s identity card. This was until the year 2006 w hen the provision was scraped to rid the country of religious discrimination despite making it optional for it to be stated, according to the cardholder’s wish. In addition, Turkey’s religious organization differs from the America organization in that it is widely Islamic and follows both religion and the voice of reason to govern it. Demographically, 90% of the Muslim population, with most of them being Sunni is just like the rest of the world (Oktem, 2002). This might be the only religious similarity the USA and Turkey have, as most of the Muslims in the US, are also Sunni Muslims. Other Islamic groups in the country include Kars and those of the Shia sect, as well as Alevis. The only difference between the groups is the values and religious rituals to which they subscribe. Other religious groups include Jews and Christians, who are then divided into different groups, which are, unlike the American ones. This is because most of them are orthodox, only that they are c ategorized according to the country of origin, such as