In Hungary it is the ISKCON (Hare Krishnas). They were around clandestinely since about 1980, then openly from the end of communism in 1990 onwards. By 1993, they constructed the Krishna Valley eco village, one of the largest ISKCON compounds in Europe in Somogy county. They have a chain of church-owned vegetarian and vegan restaurants present in the larger towns of Hungary with the “Govinda” name serving Hungarian-Indian fusion food, and can be frequently seen cooking food for homeless people, begging for donations, or on missionary activity.

Among the general population, their food distribution and environmentalism is generally regarded positively, but they are known to be somewhat shady and secretive, and live by very strict rules, so are considered somewhat strange.

2 comments
  1. If we don’t devide into different denominations and count JW as christians, the biggest “small” group would probably be practicing Buddhists as number four after Christians, jews and Muslims.

    ​

    But I feel that an honourable mention needs to go out to some of the more otherworldish Christian denomination because it is a speciality in the German speaking part of Europe, the [Christian Community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christian_Community) – even though they only are some 60K worldwide. Nobody builds churches [quite like they do](https://christengemeinschaft.de/sites/default/files/styles/slick_media/public/Bockelmann-Annegret/2021-07/offene-tuere.jpg?h=45349b98&itok=rmj35Xjh).

  2. If we limit it to the most widespread non-traditional group, for Cyprus it’s either Judaism or Buddhism, both being driven by recent immigration trends. They both do face some challenges practising their traditions as both kosher slaughter and cremation are clashing with local laws.

    I don’t think that Cypriots have any strong opinions about Buddhism particularly, I’d say that any thoughts they have are based on the ethnic groups that practice the religion in Cyprus. Regarding Judaism, I have no observations because I was no longer living in Cyprus before the trend picked up. There’s certainly a lot of old-school anti-Semitic tropes being regurgitated, mostly picked up from Greek popular culture (Greece, unlike Cyprus, [has/had](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Greece#World_War_II,_Resistance_and_the_Holocaust) a historical Jewish presence).

    * * *

    To be honest, I find the various non-mainstream flavours of Christianity you can find in Cyprus more *sociologically* interesting. For example, there’s a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cyprus, and they live very secretive lives. I had absolutely no idea about what their dogma and practices are like until a couple of years ago, and I was very surprised to find out they not just a New World offshoot of Protestantism (something that’s already exotic in Cyprus).
    In Cyprus, JWs have cultivated a very convincing image of an oppressed religious minority and the only ones who speak against them are deeply fundamentalist Orthodox Christians who disagree with them on theological points. I probably spent most of my life feeling a bit sorry for their plight, given that the people who are against them are pretty horrible themselves. But it seems like they deserve each-other.

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