Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: what's the main religion in Austria?
Christianity is the predominant religion in Austria. At the 2001 census, 73.6% of the country's population was Catholic.[5] As of 2018, the number of Catholics has dropped to 56.9% of the population, according to data provided by the Austrian Catholic Church itself.[3] There is a much smaller group of Evangelicals, totalling about 4.7% of the population in 2001, shrunk to 3.3% in 2018.[6] Since 2001, these two historically dominant religious groups in Austria recorded losses in the number of adherents. The Catholic Church reported an absolute drop of 15.7%, the Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed churches of 1.3%. In relative numbers the losses of the smaller Evangelical churches account for 33.7%, compared to Catholic losses which account for 21.9%, since their maximum in 1971.
How Do You Spell God?: Answers to the Big Questions from Around the World is a book on religion by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Msgr. Thomas Hartman of "The God Squad", which answers questions about different religions. Each chapter's title is a question about any religion in general; for example, one chapter asks "What are some of the bad things in religions?", another asks "What question does each religion want to answer the most?", and another asks "What's a religion?".
Main denominations in Austria[20][21][22] YearPopulationCatholicsPercentageProtestants[23]Percentage19516,933,9056,170,08489.0%429,4936.2%19617,073,8076,295,07589.0%438,6636.2%19717,491,5266,548,31687.4%447,0706.0%19817,555,3386,372,64584.3%423,1625.6%19917,795,7866,081,45478.0%388,7095.0%20018,032,9265,915,42173.6%376,1504.7%20118,408,1215,403,72264.3%319,7523.8%20128,451,8605,359,15163.4%325,9053.9%20138,507,7865,308,51562.4%313,3523.7%20148,584,9265,265,37861.4%309,1583.6%20158,700,4715,211,23859.9%306,1833.5%20168,773,6865,162,62258.8%301,7293.4%20178.823.0545.112.330[3]57.9%296.3383.4%
Different religions have different ideas about Ultimate Reality, its source or ground (or lack thereof) and also about what is the "Maximal Greatness". Paul Tillich's concept of 'Ultimate Concern' and Rudolf Otto's 'Idea of the Holy' are concepts which point to concerns about the ultimate or highest truth which most religious philosophies deal with in some way. One of the main differences among religions is whether the Ultimate Reality is a personal God or an impersonal reality. 
The Kurdish people have different religions depending on the country in which they live in or they have cultural and ethnic links to that religion, the most common religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, practiced by 98% of Kurds living in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds of Turkey are 30% Alevi out of a population of approximately 15-22 million Kurds and 68% follow Sunni Islam. Religion has become a fundamental part of what it means to be a Kurd. The first known religion of the Kurds was Zoroastrianism, an ancient Iranian religion. As Zoroastrianism was fading from the ancient areas of Mesopotamia and Anatolia Yezidism was becoming more accepted as the main religion of the Kurds in the Shingal area (Sinjar) the 12-13th Century and more Yezidi tribes expanded into South-eastern Anatolia. The areas where the Kurds consider their homeland have a wide variety of religions including Islam, Christianity and Judaism which have all at one point existed in the Kurdish areas. The Religion of the Kurds has been changing constantly throughout history.
The Reformed Church in Austria, a Calvinist body, has roughly 13,590 members.
Catholicism is the largest religion in Austria, representing 57.9%[3] of the total population in 2017. The Catholic Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Wien, Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Schönborn belongs to the Central European noble family of Schönborn. Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled Primus Germaniae (Primate of Germany).
The first non-violent German conquest was Austria. After Italy had joined Germany in the Anti-Comintern Pact, quickly removing the main obstacle of an "Anschluss" of Austria, Germany announced the annexation on March 12, 1938, making it the province ""Gau Ostmark"" of what was now Greater Germany.
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches grew over the last decades due to the coming of South Slavic immigrants from the Balkans to Austria. The largest group of Eastern Orthodox in Austria are Serbs. The Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences estimated in that there were 397,219 Eastern Orthodox Christians in Austria in 2016, representing the 4.6% of the total population.
Islam in Austria is the largest minority religion and the second most widely professed religion in the country, practiced by 8% of the total population according to 2016 estimates. The majority of Muslims in Austria belong to Sunni denomination. Most Muslims came to Austria during the 1960s as migrant workers from Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are also communities of Arab and Afghan origin.
In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main world religions includes Middle Eastern religions (including Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and 
classical Hellenistic religions.
Austria was greatly affected by the Protestant Reformation, to a point where a significant part of the population became Protestant. Lutheranism was the most successful Protestant confession; that was the case among other German-speaking populations across the Holy Roman Empire and Austria was indeed one of them. Calvinism did not receive that much support. The prominent position of the Habsburgs in the Counter-Reformation, however, saw Protestantism all but wiped out beginning in 1545, restoring Catholicism as the dominant religion once more.
In 1781, in the era of Austrian enlightenment, Emperor Joseph II issued a Patent of Tolerance for Austria that allowed other confessions a limited freedom of worship. Religious freedom was declared a constitutional right in Cisleithania after the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich in 1867 thus paying tribute to the fact that the monarchy was home of numerous religions beside Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Christians (Austria neighboured the Ottoman Empire for centuries), both Calvinist and Lutheran Protestants, and Jews. In 1912, after the annexation of Bosnia Hercegovina in 1908, Islam was officially recognised in Austria.[12]
What is known of pre-Spanish Maya religion stems from heterogeneous sources (the primary ones being of Maya origin):Traditional Maya religion, though also representing a belief system, is often referred to as "costumbre", the 'custom' or habitual religious practice, in contradistinction to orthodox Roman Catholic ritual. To a large extent, Maya religion is indeed a complex of ritual practices; and it is, therefore, fitting that the indigenous Yucatec village priest is simply called "jmen" ("practitioner"). Among the main concepts relating to Maya ritual are the following ones.
Possible evidence can be found in Bismarck's orchestration of the Austrian alliance during the Second Schleswig War against Denmark, which can be seen as his diplomatic "masterstroke". Taylor also believes that the alliance was a "test for Austria rather than a trap" and that the goal was not war with Austria, contradicting what Bismarck later gave in his memoirs as his main reason for establishing the alliance. It was in the Prussian interest to gain an alliance with Austria to defeat Denmark and settle the issue of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The alliance can be regarded as an aid to Prussian expansion, rather than a provocation of war against Austria. Many historians believe that Bismarck was simply a Prussian expansionist, rather than a German nationalist, who sought the unification of Germany. It was at the Gastein Convention that the Austrian alliance was set up to lure Austria into war.
The last census in Austria that collected data on religion was in 2001. That census found that there were 338,988 Muslims in the country, making up 4.2% of the population. Statistics Austria estimated in 2009 that 515,914 Muslims lived in Austria. Work by Ednan Aslan and Erol Yıldız that used data from the 2009 Statistics Austria report estimated that 573,876 Muslims lived in Austria in 2012, making up 6.8% of the population.
The Protestant Reformation spread from northern Germany to Austria. By the Council of Trent in 1545, almost half of the Austrian population had converted to Lutheranism, while a much smaller minority also endorsed Calvinism. Eastern Austria was more affected by this phenomenon than western Austria. After 1545, Austria was recatholicized in the Counter Reformation. The Habsburgs imposed a strict regime to restore the influence of the Catholic Church among Austrians and their campaign proved successful; the Habsburgs for a long time viewed themselves as the vanguard of Catholicism, while all the other Christian confessions and religions were repressed.
A general question which philosophy of religion asks is what is the relationship, if any, between morality and religion. Brian Davies outlines four possible theses: Monotheistic religions who seek to explain morality and its relationship to God must deal with what is termed the Euthyphro dilemma, famously stated in the Platonic dialogue "Euthyphro" as: "Is the pious (τὸ ὅσιον, i.e. what is morally good) loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Those who hold that what is moral is so "because" it is what God commands are defending a version of the Divine command theory.
This definition also does not stipulate what exactly may be considered sacred. Thus later sociologists of religion (notably Robert Neelly Bellah) have extended Durkheimian insights to talk about notions of civil religion, or the religion of a state. American civil religion, for example, might be said to have its own set of sacred "things": the flag of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Other sociologists have taken Durkheim's concept of what religion is in the direction of the religion of professional sports, the military, or of rock music.
Buddhism is a legally recognized religion in Austria and it is followed by thousands of people. Although still small in absolute numbers (10,402 at the 2001 census), Buddhism enjoys widespread acceptance in Austria. A majority of Buddhists in the country are Austrian nationals (some of them naturalized after immigration from Asia, predominantly from China and Vietnam), while a considerable number of them are foreign nationals.
In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main world religions includes Middle Eastern religions (including Zoroastrianism and Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenistic religions.
In contrast, due to immigration, the number of Muslims in Austria has increased in recent years, with 4.2% of the population calling themselves Muslim in 2001, up to around 5% to 6.2% in 2010,[7][8] and to 7.9% in 2016 - represented especially by immigrants from Turkey and the Balkans.[9] Orthodox churches have also grown rapidly (up to 8.8% of the population) in recent years, mainly due to immgration of Serbs from the former Yugoslavia and Romanians.[4] There are also minor communities of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, and other religions in Austria.[10][11]
Currently, Austria recognizes twelve religions. In addition to various Christian denominations including Jehovah's Witnesses, these include Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. To date, Austria has not granted full recognition to several newer and allegedly controversial religions such as the Church of Scientology. Some newer religious groups, however, have applied under the 1998 Act and thereby attained the preliminary status of communities of believers.
Buddhism in Austria Catholic Church in Austria Old Catholic Church of Austria Protestantism in Austria Hinduism in Austria Islam in Austria History of the Jews in Austria Religions by country Freedom of religion in Austria
Cleric Enayatullah Baligh, speaking at one of Kabul's main mosques said, "We respect all religions but we don't go into the British embassy or the American embassy to see what religion they are following. We won't let anyone interfere with our religion and he should be punished."