This article was first Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at – :
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/03/qatar-catholic-church-opens.html
We welcome this advancment – Mike Ghouse
DOHA (AFP) — Christians in Qatar opened their first church on Friday, joining fellow believers in most other Gulf Arab states who have long been able to worship in churches rather than homes and other venues.
An inauguration event was held for St Mary’s Roman Catholic church in Doha, the first of five that will be built in Qatar.
The opening of the church was attended by high-ranking diplomats, Catholic religious leaders and Qatar’s minister of energy and industry, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.
“The church will send a positive message to the world,” Attiyah told reporters.
The secretary of the Anglican church in neighbouring Bahrain, Yussef Haidar, boasts that the tiny state “hosts the first church of the Gulf region, founded in 1906 by American Anglican missionaries”.
Kuwait has about 10 churches.
Complaints by some Christians that they were forced to rent private residences and turn them into places of worship, prompted the Kuwaiti government three years ago to allot two large plots of land for new churches.
The United Arab Emirates, which prides itself on its religious tolerance and cultural diversity, also has several churches used by hundreds of thousands of Christian expats, mostly Filipinos, Indians and Arabs.
Land for churches in Oman has been donated by Sultan Qaboos.
However, Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism and is home to Islam’s holiest sites, bans all non-Muslim religious rituals and materials.http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSdhIplxRjA5Isbw9mxIUMF1dmqw