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A.C.N - Aid to the Church in Need Italian Office |
Religious Freedom in
the Majority Islamic Countries |
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Kuwait Population:
1,809,270
Constitutionally, religious freedom is upheld, though there is some room for discussion as to the real degree of tolerance in practice and as to the effective relevance of Article 29 of the Constitution which sanctions the absence of discrimination. In 1940 the Catholic Church was granted permission to maintain a presence in the country, but only in order to serve the religious needs of the expatriate workers in the petrol industry. The Emir of Kuwait has refused to introduce the Sharia in the area under his rule and has shown himself opposed to any further change of the constitution in an Islamic direction, deeming it unnecessary. From the interview with Bishop Francis Adeodatus Micallef, the Apostolic Vicar of Kuwait, which he gave to Asia Focus in May 1993, it emerges that Catholics are a small minority, all foreigners, as are the religious, who come above all from India and the Philippines. Before the Gulf War there was a community of Arab Catholic immigrants from Jordan and Palestine, but its members have been expelled. Today the number of these Arab Catholics in the country is not even a hundred, with very few children indeed, because the government does not permit foreign workers to bring their families with them. With regard to the Church, there is formal respect, but she is permitted to pursue her activities only and exclusively within her places of worship, and all public activity is forbidden. In the majority of the private institutes it is forbidden to give religious instruction, and the only religious schools that exist are private ones. It is very difficult to obtain a visa, even a tourist visa, a fact which prevents missionaries entering the country. According to Avvenire of July 16 1998,the Carmelites exercise a pastoral ministry which aims, among other things, to counter the danger of an islamisation of the minority - a danger made the more likely by the numerous incentives, economic ones included, offered by the authorities to those who convert. Robert, alias Hussein Ali Qambar, a Muslim who converted to Christianity, was recently denounced in secret, for apostasy, by his wife and radical Islamic family, after he had received baptism in 1995. In February 1996 a judgement by a lower court refused the request of his wife that he be deprived of the right to visit his children. A few months later, according to KNA of July 11 1996, he had been condemned to death. On January 31 1997,the same source reported that Hussein had returned to his original religion out of fear. After having publicly repudiated the Islamic faith, the man had been condemned to death and had fled to the USA. After returning to his own country, he was forced to pay the costs of the trial and denied both custody of his children and all rights of legal inheritance. Most recently, according to the Catholic World Report of November 1998, a Kuwaiti Imam, Sheikh Kazim al-Misbah, spoke out against the construction of new Christian churches. In a an interview with the review "al-Hadath" he expressed his opposition to permitting the entry of non- Muslims into the country. |
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