About 97 percent of all Pakistanis are Muslims.
Official documentation states that Sunni
Muslims constitute 77 percent of the population
and that adherents of Shia
Islam make up an additional 20 percent. Christians,
Hindus,
and members of other religions each account for about
1 percent of the population.
Islam
was brought to the South
Asian subcontinent in the eighth century by wandering
Sufi
mystics known as pir. As in other areas where it was
introduced by Sufis, Islam to some extent syncretized
with preIslamic influences, resulting in a religion
traditionally more flexible than in the Arab
world. Two Sufis whose shrines receive much national
attention are Data
Ganj Baksh in Lahore
(ca. eleventh century) and Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan,
Sindh
(ca. twelfth century).
