A/HRC/7/10/Add.4 page 7 Pentecostals, claimed to be represented by approximately 30 per cent of the population. Syncretic religious groups exist, the largest of which was the Kimbanguist Church, whose followers believe that mid-twentieth century Congolese pastor Joseph Kimbangu was a prophet. There are no precise figures of the number of Muslims in Angola although one estimate reports that 2.5 per cent of the population are Muslims. 2 The Ministry of Justice currently recognizes 85 religious denominations. B. Thematic issues of concern 1. Registration of religious communities 16. A number of Christian groups as well as the Muslim community in Angola have not been granted recognition to date, despite having submitted several applications for registration. The Muslim community which has still not been legally recognized submitted a second request for legal status in March 2006, since the first application submitted in 2004 was according to the authorities improperly prepared. 3 The Special Rapporteur was informed that efforts were made by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Justice in early 2007 to try to unify the Muslim community in order to assist the latter with its application for registration, although no decision on the application was reported to have been received by the end of 2007. Other religious minorities have no chance of recognition according to current registration requirements. 17. The process of formal recognition of religious institutions in Angola began with the publication of Executive Decree no. 9/87 which conferred legal personality on twelve churches. Pursuant to a subsequent legal amendment introduced by Executive Decree 46/91 religious institutions were required to submit a series of documents for their official recognition. The requirements were again amended by Article 9 of Law no. 2/04 on freedom of religion, conscience and worship which established strict criteria for registration of religious organizations. According to this law, a religious group must have at least 100,000 adherents to qualify for registration. Further requirements include that those persons must be adults and reside in the national territory as well as that signatures must be recognized by a notary and be from two thirds of the total of the provinces of Angola. Religious organizations seeking registration must provide general background information to register, such as name of the religious confession, the main body of its doctrine, the main acts of worship, discipline and hierarchy within the religious organization. Religious groups are required to petition to the Ministry of Justice and for legal status, whilst the Ministry of Culture at the request of the Ministry of Justice is tasked with carrying out relevant inquiries. 4 18. Legal status enables religious groups to act as juridical persons in the court system; it entitles religious communities to build places of worship, exempts religious 2 Available online at http://www.islamicpopulation.com/angola_muslim.html. 3 See also letter of the Special Rapporteur dated 19 June 2006 and response of the Angolan Government dated 6 October 2006 (A/HRC/4/21/Add.1, paras. 18-19). 4 Law no. 2/04 articles 9(1), 9(4) and 11(1).