Riyadh, September 30, 2013
Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah
Bin Abdullah, head of the Ulema Council and the Standing Committee on Fatwas, made this statement after a presentation by the Kuwaiti parliamentarian Osama Al-Munawer of the bill that bans construction of new non-Muslim religious buildings in Kuwait.
The Mufti stated that, according to Islamic law, all churches in the region must be demolished; i.e., Islam is the only legal religion here. The words of Muhammad that "there cannot be two religions on the Arabian peninsula" the head of the Sunni always interprets in favor of Islam.
The first Orthodox church in the Arabian Peninsula
In June, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, consecrated the new Church of St. Antonio in United Arab Emirates, near Dubai. The Church of St. Paul in Abu Dhabi is currently in the first stage of development. Early this year, the king of Bahrain donated land for the construction of a new church for a Christian community.
