Religion in Mauritania

Government estimates place the Sunni Muslim population at about 99 percent; other estimates describe small Shia and non-Muslim minorities. Non-Muslims are mostly foreign residents, and small Christian communities exist in Nouakchott, Kaédi, Atar, Nouadhibou and Rosso. Public Christian worship is generally limited to authorised churches and is usually accessible only to foreigners, while private worship faces fewer practical obstacles than public religious activity. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Traditional Education, known as MIATE, oversees Islamic guidance, mosques, pilgrimage arrangements, Mahadras, regional religious institutes, adult literacy and religious media. A Mahdara is a traditional school for Quranic and Islamic studies. The Haut Conseil de la Fatwa et des Recours Gracieux issues religious opinions within the Maliki tradition; it has nine members serving four-year terms. The Ministry of Education manages school curricula, while courts apply the Personal Status Code No. 2001-052 to marriage, divorce and inheritance. Daily practice commonly includes the five pillars of Islam, mosque prayer, fasting during Ramadan, zakat and preparation for Hajj or Umrah. Ramadan and Eid dates follow the lunar calendar and are announced after the National Moon-Sighting Committee reviews the sighting of the new moon. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are national public holidays, and a presidential decree can create a substitute holiday, as happened nationwide on 31 March 2025 after Eid al-Fitr. MIATE also provides prayer times, Quran radio and television, Quran competitions and religious guidance. The government sometimes requests unified Friday sermons, and Hajj and Umrah procedures are organised annually through the ministry. Reliable standard fees for religious services are not available; pilgrimage and Mahdara costs vary by provider, arrangement and year. MIATE reported more than 11,000 licensed Mahadras on 5 February 2026. Registration, teaching authorisation, educational requirements and child-protection rules apply, and an unlicensed Mahdara can be suspended until it is regularised. State institutions include the Institut Supérieur des Études et de Recherches Islamiques, the Grande Mahdara Chinguittiya and regional institutes. Islamic classes also exist in non-international schools; participation is not compulsory and does not require every pupil to complete a religious qualification. Quran memorisation and Islamic-studies competitions provide additional learning pathways. The Constitution describes Mauritania as an Islamic Republic and names Islam as the religion of the people and the state. Freedom of thought, expression and assembly is subject to statutory limits, and the constitution protects regularly resident foreigners. The constitution also recognises a national fatwa body. Mauritania accepted the right to freedom of religion under Article 18 of the ICCPR with a reservation that preserves the application of Islamic Shariah. Blasphemy, apostasy and concealing apostasy while publicly professing Islam are criminal offences. Following the 2018 amendment to Article 306, the death penalty applies to relevant offences without the earlier mitigation based on repentance; reports through 2023 recorded no executions for these offences. Proselytising is not stated as a separate offence but is prohibited by the authorities. Public expression of a religion other than Islam is prohibited, while possession of non-Islamic material is legal but printing or distributing it is prohibited. A person who leaves Islam can face severe family and social pressure, exclusion, violence or prosecution, and no secure public procedure for religious conversion by Mauritanian citizens is evidenced. State-supported religious dialogue is mainly Islamic in character. MIATE promotes moderation, tolerance and coexistence through conferences and workshops, including cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace and UNODC programmes addressing radicalisation. No broad, equal-status interreligious institution has been evidenced. Muslim marriage, divorce, inheritance and religious ceremonies are socially dominant, and formal non-Islamic civil alternatives for citizens are not reliably documented. Death and burial practices are also strongly shaped by Islam, although detailed formal rules vary locally.