A group of Christians
has complained that Kuwait City’s Municipal Council is preventing them
from getting land to build a church.
"The Municipal Council is the big
problem preventing us from getting land; not all of the members, just
the Islamic fundamentalists," said Archimandrite Boutros Gharib, head of
the local Greek Catholic Church.
Recently the municipal council blocked an attempt by
the Greek Catholic Church to acquire land in Mahboula, an area in the
Ahmadi governorate south of Kuwait City. The request has been pending
for several years.
A new church would reduce over-crowdedness in a villa currently used for worshiping, Fr Gharib said.
According to the Greek Catholic clergyman, both the
government and the country’s leader, Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, have
given their approval and blessing to the Church to have its property
built. However, the Council has not followed suit. What is more, “The
council did not give us any reason,” he added.
“We found the higher levels of government say yes and
the lower levels of government say no,” said Rev Andrew Thompson, the
Anglican chaplain to Kuwait, who stressed that religious fundamentalists
controlled the municipality.
The church said the government had proposed an area of 7,500 m2 with land for buildings and parking.
Greek Catholic Church board member Elian Farah said
the government suggested parishioners use the parking facilities of two
schools under construction nearby on the weekends and the evenings in
addition to their dedicated parking area.
Fr Gharib noted that his church is paying US$ 6,944 a
month for a villa that is also shared by two other congregations. If
they did not find land soon, the church would have to close, he said.
"It's all excuses. It's all lies," he said. "Every time they promise,
but all their promises are for nothing."
The one success the Christian community has had in the
past 40 years came when Egyptian Copts secured land for their church,
but even they have had trouble getting a building permit.
The Greek Catholic community in Kuwait includes about
650 families, and they are not the only Christian group struggling to
find space to worship in the country.
Around 460,000 Christians have to share four official
churches—two Catholic, an Evangelical and an Anglican—plus the Coptic
church under construction.
SIC: AN/INT'L