Saudi Grand Mufti again calls for destruction of all churches on Arabian Peninsula.

"Interfaith Dialog 101"

Saudi Grand Mufti again calls for destruction of all churches on Arabian Peninsula.(AN).

According to a website dedicated to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Aal ash-Shaikh has repeated his 2012 call for the banning of all Christian churches in the Arabian Peninsula. Basing his belief, apparently, on a hadith that has the Prophet Mohammed declaring that no two different faiths can exist in Arabia, the Grand Mufti wants to purge the region of any but Muslim places of worship.

Never mind that the hadith the Grand Mufti relies upon is contradicted by the text of the Quran or by millennia of Islamic practice. He wants what he wants, though why he chose this moment to reiterate his intolerance is puzzling.

Saudi Mufti again calls for destruction of all churches on Arabian Peninsula
Riyadh, September 30, 2013: Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Bin Abdullah has once again called for the destruction of all Churches on the Arabian Peninsula.
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.

Not long ago, owing to the consecration of a Catholic Church in United Arab Emirates, the local Christians expected the opening of negotiations concerning the construction of the first church in Saudi Arabia. At the present time, from 3 to 4 million immigrant Christians work in this Muslim country, according to various sources.

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.