Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Calls for Destruction of Churches in Region
this guy the highest religious authority in Arabia
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The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia (left), the country’s top Islamic cleric, has declared that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region,” placing Christian places of worship throughout the Arabian Peninsula in potential jeopardy. Since Christianity is already forbidden in Saudi Arabia and no churches exist there, the implications of the cleric’s words were that the church ban should extend to other countries in the region, including Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Arabic Christian news site Linga.org, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah made the controversial statement during a meeting with a delegation from the Kuwait-based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage, in response to a query about Sharia law concerning the construction of churches in Islamic countries. As reported by the Christian Post, the question was in reference “to a recent controversial statement by a Kuwaiti member of parliament who reportedly called for the ‘removal’ of churches. The MP reportedly specified later that he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait.”
According to USCatholic.org, legislation was recently introduced in Kuwait’s parliament that would mandate the removal of Christian churches from the country and impose strict Islamic law (Shariah). “Party officials said later the legislation would not remove the churches, but prohibit further construction of Christian churches and non-Muslim places of worship in the country,” reported the Catholic news site.
In making the pronouncement, the mufti cited an Islamic tradition that on his deathbed the prophet Mohammed had decreed that “there are not to be two religions in the Arabian Peninsula” — which some observant Muslims have seen as an order to cleanse the area of Christian influence. The Saudi cleric emphasized that because Kuwait is part of the Arabian Peninsula, it would be necessary to destroy all churches in the country.
The Christian Post noted that although Christian worship is officially forbidden in Saudi Arabia, “a small minority of Christians is known to worship there, unofficially. According to one 2008 estimate, there were 800,000 Catholics living in Saudi Arabia at the time.”
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look, folks
tellin you, but you not listening
only Iran has what it takes to clean the barn
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