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  • Christians enjoy religious freedom' Church-State ties excellent

    Christians enjoy religious freedom' Church-State ties excellent

    By: Nihal Sharaf

    http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/ 96/smid/414/ArticleID/147658/t/%E2%80%98Christians -enjoy-religious-freedom%E2%80%99/Default.aspx

    Re verend Amanuel Benjamin Ghareeb has been the Pastor and caretaker of
    the National Evangelical Church of Kuwait for a decade. He was
    ordained on Jan. 8, 1999 in what was considered a unique event in the
    history of the Evangelical community of Kuwait.

    What may be new information to many, Reverend Ghareeb is a Kuwaiti
    citizen. He was born in Kuwait in 1950 and has been living peacefully
    among his people, Muslims and Christians, throughout the country's
    many ups and downs. This is what made his ordination as a Pastor
    special in the memories of many Christians as he was the first Gulf
    Arab to be designated for the Church. According to the Reverend
    minister, there are currently approximately 200 Christian Kuwaiti
    citizens residing in the country.

    After graduating from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Cairo
    in 1989, Reverend Ghareeb returned to Kuwait where he stayed, along
    with his family and fellow faithful, even through the Iraqi
    occupation. He has helped restore the country as well as bring the
    Christian community back together after its liberation.

    In an insightful interview with the Arab Times, Reverend Ghareeb talks
    about the history of Christianity in Kuwait, the many faithful of
    various denominations residing in the country, the meaning of
    Evangelical Christianity as well as the recent relationship and
    communication developments between the Muslims and Christians who
    reside here.


    Q: What are the origins of Kuwaiti Christians who were naturalized
    during the establishment of Kuwait?

    A: Kuwaiti Christians are originally Christian families who immigrated
    like any other family to this region. The number of Kuwaiti Christians
    is now around 150-200 among approximately 450,000 Christians from all
    over the world.

    Most of Kuwait's local Christians belong to 12 large families. As you
    know, Kuwait comprises mainly of people who came from three different
    sources - from Saudi Arabia, from Iraq and from Iran. The first
    Christian families came from southeast Turkey and Iraq and they have
    been living in Kuwait for over 90 years and speak the Kuwaiti Arabic
    dialect. Other families have come from Palestine, such as Al-Shuhaibar
    family, and a few from Lebanon and Syria.

    According to the citizenship law, whoever was in Kuwait before 1920 is
    considered Kuwaiti and whoever came after the 1940s was
    naturalized. At least one Christian family was living here before
    1920.

    Before the discovery of oil, the process of naturalization was not
    available because Kuwait was a simple country and there were no
    passports. After the discovery of oil, the number of people increased
    considerably and the leadership wanted to organize the country so they
    started to issue passports for identification.

    Then, in 1959, the citizenship law was passed. As you know before 1961
    Kuwait was a British protectorate according to an agreement between
    Kuwait and Britain. They cancelled this agreement on June 19, 1961
    which we consider the National Day of Kuwait.


    Q: What is the history of Christianity in Kuwait?

    A: Kuwait is the land of abundance. God has blessed Kuwait and gave
    her a wise leadership from its onset. The people of Kuwait have
    welcomed anyone who has come from abroad to make a living and they
    respect everyone provided they abide by the laws and rules of the
    country. We have plenty of stories of success by people who came from
    all over the world.

    The history of Christians in Kuwait began in the early 1900's when
    Reverend Dr Samuel Zwemer and Reverend Fred Barney who were
    missionaries from the Reformed Church of America arrived. Permission
    was granted in 1911 by Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah to begin medical work
    in Kuwait and former American Mission Hospital was established in
    1913.

    Elder Yacoub Shammas Ibrahim was the first Arab Evangelist to come to
    Kuwait in 1919. He came as part of the Arabian Mission of the Reformed
    Church of America. In 1931, within the mission's compound, the
    Evangelical Church was built and is considered the first Church built
    in Kuwait during modern times.

    However, if we go back in history, Failaka Island contains the
    remnants of a Church dating to perhaps as early as the 5th or 6th
    century when the Hellenes settled on the island according to the
    crosses that form part of the structural decoration that were found at
    Al-Khazna Hill area on the Island.

    Kuwait Oil Company was established in 1934 as a partnership between
    Gulf oil and British Petroleum. It was a foreign company so the
    majority of the staff were Christians. They built two Churches in
    Ahmadi in the late 1940s at the beginning of oil exports. One is
    called Saint Paul's Church which belongs to the Anglicans and the
    other belongs to the Catholics and is called `Our Lady of Arabia'.

    Up until now, the two Churches are still maintained by the Kuwaiti
    government through Kuwait Oil Company and people are still worshipping
    God in these two Churches. In the late 1950s, the Catholic Church in
    Kuwait City was built and the land on which it was built was a gift
    bestowed by the previous ruler of Kuwait, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem
    Al-Sabah.

    In the 1960s, the Coptic Orthodox Christians conducted their prayers
    in a rented house near the Catholic Church. It was demolished due to
    renovations recently; however, land was given to them in Hawalli to
    build their new Church. In the 1960s and 70s the Greek Orthodox came
    and also rented villas to be remodeled into Churches as well as the
    Armenian Orthodox.


    Q: What are the Christian denominations that are currently available
    in Kuwait?

    A: The number of established Churches in Kuwait is currently seven;
    however, there are 85 prayer groups of various Evangelical
    denominations that worship in the Evangelical Compound. The Catholics,
    including the Maronite Christians, mostly come from Asian countries
    such as India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as
    well as from Arab countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine
    and Syria.

    Also available in Kuwait is the Anglican Episcopalian Church, the
    Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Orthodox Church, the Coptic
    Orthodox Church as well as the Greek Catholic Church.


    Q: How would you describe the relationship between the Christians of
    Kuwait and the government?

    A: We thank God that we as Christians in Kuwait enjoy a large amount
    of religious freedom. Kuwait's Constitution states that `freedom of
    belief is absolute,' and that `the State protects the freedom of
    practicing religion in accordance with established customs, provided
    that it does not conflict with public policy or morals.'

    In December 1999, the Bible Society in the Gulf Shop was built. So the
    Church even has an agreement with the Kuwaiti government to import
    books and gifts that nurture the faith of Christians of different
    backgrounds and languages.

    Abiding by the rules of censorship of the Ministry of Information,
    books and Bibles written in 50 different languages are now available
    at the bookstore. The trust between us and the ministry is growing
    because they know us through our long history of working together.

    The creation of the Islamic Christian Relations Council (ICRC) was
    also a huge step towards strengthening ties between the Muslims and
    Christians of Kuwait. The Council's establishment was announced in
    February 2009 and was an initiative by the National Consensus Movement
    run by our Shiite brothers. They approached the Church for the purpose
    of gathering all Muslims, Shiite and Sunni, and all Christians, the
    Catholics, Protestants and the Orthodox.

    The Council comprises of 11 Islamic and Christian scholars and
    authoritative figures such as Professor Mohammed Baker Al-Mohary who
    is the Council's President, myself, Reverend Amanuel Ghareeb, the
    Vice-Resident; Professor Zuhair Abdul-Hadi Al-Mahmeed, who is the
    General Secretary and Sheikh Hussain Al-Azhary who is the Research and
    Consultancy Manager.

    All the members agreed on the by-laws of the Council in order to
    strengthen relations and inter-religious dialogue between all the
    Muslims and Christians of Kuwait in order to cooperate and defend
    ourselves against any attacks on the two religions in the country and
    outside.

    Our general targets include centering all actions and discussions from
    the principle of belief in and worship of One God; rallying rational
    energies to meet the various intellectual and societal challenges;
    establishing trust between the two faiths through various seminars and
    activities as well as providing consultation to decision makers in the
    Muslim and Christian communities by studying and analyzing
    intellectual and societal developments.

    On Dec 23 last year, the Council members held a meeting to evaluate
    the visit that was made on Dec 14-16 to the Vatican in which they met
    with different councils in the Vatican such as the Pontifical Council
    for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic
    and Islamic Studies.

    It was a successful visit. We thank God we were able to introduce
    ourselves to them and build relations of cooperation. We invited them
    for a conference which will be held on November 2010 regarding Saint
    Mary and they promised to participate.

    This year we are also planning to visit Egypt and meet with Muslim and
    Christian spiritual authorities such as Al-Azhar's Sheikh and Mufti as
    well as Pope Shounuda.


    Q: How did Evangelical Protestant Christianity arise and the main
    differences between this denomination and Catholicism?

    A: This goes back to the middle ages or medieval times in the 15th
    century when corruption was very apparent in the Catholic Church and
    its teachings, which we, as Protestants, do not believe is according
    to the Bible. Martin Luther began the religious Protestant reformation
    in Germany.

    He created the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 which debated and criticized
    the Church and the Pope and challenged their authority by teaching
    that the Bible is the only source of divine knowledge. His original
    goal was to reform the Catholic Church from inside-out and he
    translated the Bible from Latin into the German language in order for
    it to be more accessible to the people.

    Among Luther's questionings in the Theses were the intercession of and
    devotion to the saints as well as the mandatory clerical
    celibacy. However, when he was faced with severe opposition from his
    Holiness the Pope and other authorities, he was obliged to start a new
    Church. There were movements prior to his which were quickly
    stopped. Nevertheless, Luther succeeded in spreading his thoughts of
    reformation in Germany. The reformation spread to the whole of Europe,
    England then North America.

    >From what I understand, there are two explanations to Protestant
    Christianity. During the trial of Martin Luther they told him that he
    had to deny his reformation principles. He told them that, unless
    they provided him with proof from the Bible itself that his thoughts
    were wrong, he would not retract his statements. `On this I stand,'
    he said. So, from this statement, they said that `he protested'. So
    his followers are the people who `protested' the teachings of the
    Catholic Church and the Pope.

    The second explanation is the literal meaning of Latin term
    `Protestarri'. `Testarri' means `the text' in Latin and `pro' in Latin
    means `for' in English. So the word means `For the Text', meaning the
    people of that faith follow the Bible only, which is considered
    infallible, and refuse to accept any other teachings which are only
    considered traditions.

    The reformation also took different forms pertaining to different
    countries, but the main principles of Luther remained especially the
    authority and infallibility of the Bible. Therefore the Protestant
    Church does not have as much control over the interpretation of
    religion as the Catholics.

    Evangelism is for the Protestant denominations only. Evangelism is a
    term that has two different meanings pertaining to the West and the
    Arab world. In the Arab world the term Evangelical is derived from the
    Arabic word `Injeeliya'. The term was first used in Egypt to define
    the Presbyterian Church which taught the `Injeel' only. `Injeel' is
    the Arabic word for Bible.

    In the West, as far as I understand, the term Evangelical was used to
    define the group of Churches who concentrate on Evangelism more than
    other teachings. So they can say `so and so Church is Evangelical and
    so and so Church is not Evangelical'. According to the Bible, every
    Church should be Evangelical. The Church has many responsibilities but
    Evangelism is very important because these are the orders of Jesus
    Christ (PBUH).

    Now there are various Protestant denominations whose followers worship
    in the NECK Compound.


    Q: What main services does the Evangelical Church provide?

    A: We have a variety of services that meet the spiritual and
    psychological needs of all age groups such as Sunday school, teenagers
    meeting, youth meeting, eagles meeting for recent university graduates
    as well as Al Salam International Academy, which is joint venture
    between, the Arabic Language Congregation and the Metropolitan Baptist
    Church in Kuwait. We also provide Thursday services to teach Church
    members of all ages, a nursery and a ministers' training program.

    The Church Diwaniya was built in order to communicate with people in
    the local community. Like every year we held a Christmas Diwaniya in
    2009 where many people of Kuwait came to give us their well
    wishes. The Church also invites many high ranking Muslim and Christian
    authorities for Ghabqa (get-together) during Ramadan.

    biography
    Name: Amanuel B. Y. Ghareeb
    Date of birth: 9/1/1950
    Place of birth: Kuwait
    Marital status: Married

    Certificate: 1. Bachelor of Science (Geology, Chemistry) from Kuwait
    University 1971; 2. Bachelor of Theological Sciences from Evangelical
    Theological Seminary in Cairo - 1989.
    Practical Experience:
    Civilian Experience:
    From 1/8/1971 to 1/3/1996: Worked in the Ministry of Oil as
    geologist, senior geologist, controller of drilling and production and
    finally acting IT manager. n Church Experience:
    1979-1991: Member of Church's Council (by election)
    1991: Vice president of Church's Council.
    1997-1997: Joint Administrator of The National Evangelical Church in Kuwait.
    12/10/1992: Elected and ordained as Church Ruling Elder.
    1991-1996: Elected as a member of Executive Committee of The Fellowship of
    the Middle East Evangelical Churches (F.M.E.E.C).
    1991 until now: Church representative in The Middle East Council of
    Churches (M.E.C.C); Member of Regional Advisory Committee of Bible
    Society in Gulf. 8/1/1999: Ordained and installed as The Church
    Pastor.
    15/2/1999 until now: Selected as a coordinator between Arab Christian
    clergymen and government.
    2005: Participated in founding The Christian Churches Fellowship In Kuwait
    then elected as Vice-Chairman of The Fellowship.
    2009: Participated in founding Islamic Christian Relation Council then elected as Vice-Chairman of the Council.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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