ABSTRACT
Methods of religious affiliation and the procedures for entering and exiting a religion, together with the rights and duties assigned to their members, constitute an excellent reference point, which reflects not only the functioning and doctrines of religions but also the state of societies and the institutional organisation of the nations concerned. At a time of communitarian tensions and forms of religious radicalism going hand-in-hand with a progressive secularisation of societies, the issue of jointly belonging or being affiliated to a nation and a religion, the procedures for entering into and exiting from a religion, and the rights and duties of members of these groups, are of very particular sensitivity. They help us to understand the dissimilarities and elements common to different religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism) and to assess the extent to which they collide with state laws. 1
