Update on this story by Barbara Bibbo' in GulfNews, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
Doha: Qatar's first church will be completed before next Christmas, Doha's parish priest told worshippers last night during the traditional Christmas mass.Addressing more than 2,000 Christian Catholics who flocked to the Doha parish centre, Father Thomas said the liturgy was the last to be performed in the prefabricated building which hosted for many years the religious celebrations of the growing Catholic community.
"This is the last Christmas we celebrate in this parish centre. Next year we will finally celebrate it in the new church," he said.
Qatar has about 750,000 residents, whose majority are Muslims. According to Vatican's estimates, there are about 60,000 Christians in the country, including 45,000 Catholics, mainly from the Philippines and India and 7,000 Anglicans. However local sources put the number of Christians at 80,000 owing to the rise in the expatriate population.
The birth of the Catholic mission in Qatar dates back to 1956. Over the past years, the Christian communities have been authorised to meet and celebrate their liturgies in several prefabricated structures, schools and private residences. They never had a proper place of worship.
Last year, officials spoke publicly for the first time of a decision of the Qatari Emir, Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, to donate to the Christian community a plot of land in Doha's outskirts.
Mohammad Jahan Al Kawar, Qatari Ambassador to the Vatican, told Gulf News during a religious conference last year that Qatar had granted land to the Christian community to allow them to build new worship centres.
After they build church, one can only wonder how long it will take for a mosque to be built on the exact spot the church will occupy. Look around in other areas, and while I am pleased that government will allow the building, one can only wonder how long such a permission will stand? Does anyone know the height of the church and whether it will be taller than other religoious buildings?
One suspects it will be smaller so as not to interfere with the dhimmi status of the church and christians.
More importantly, how long will Qatari government last? Good luck!
For more false sense of optimism, check out this story:
Christmas All the Rage in Muslim Dubai
("Rage" was probably a poor choice of words here, given the substrate been discussed).
"...to donate to the Christian community a plot of land in Doha's outskirts."
Got it. Better than nothing I suppose.
And enough false optimism in this one to pop that misty eyed bubble:
Veiled British Muslim woman delivers alternative Xmas message
[Khadijah] said it was important to stress the links between faiths, in particular that Jesus is a prophet in Islam, and that she liked to celebrate Christmas like anyone else -- with a traditional turkey meal followed by mince pies.
"My alternative Christmas message this year is peace on earth and good will to all humankind, regardless of race, colour or creed," she said.
Asked what she would say to Straw, she replied: "Merry Christmas, Jack, and a happy new year! Would you like a mince pie?"
I understand that the UAE is quite liberal by Islamic standards. I guess it's nice that they'll get a church, but it's an empty gesture in the larger scheme of things.
so it's important to spread lies.
Posted by: StillFedUp
Such an ugly word choice, and at Christmas time! Dissembling and dissimulation (3:28, 16:106) sound so much nicer.
Besides, LIKE ANYONE ELSE she likes to celebrate Christmas with a nice HALAL turkey, butchered facing Ka'ba during the Tasmiyah with its gasping, blood sputtering trachea held not far from the butchers breast. Suitable for serving to British school children, LIKE ANYONE ELSE.
And what better way to celebrate Christmas than to take a dig at the Christian message, adding REGARDLESS OF RACE, COLOUR OR CREED, because clearly that wasn't communicated with "ALL HUMANKIND". Right?
See how enriched we are with our multiculturalism? "Merry Christmas, Jack!" Who said they couldn't assimultate?
Truly "by next Christmas"? Or merely an ignis fatuus in the swamp of rhetoric?
I wonder how long it'll take to build a church in qatar with the inevitable mobs, of Muslim fundamentalists, and terrorist groups blowing up construction and burning down the new buildings. Every time they get them up. After all, the Koran and Mohammed both said that no new church shall be built or one repaired anywhere in the Arabian Peninsula. Muslims seem to taken that to mean that churches should not be established anywhere Moslems are in control but I wish them good luck
Off topic:
Islamic superheroes, THE 99
Ummah News Links
Such is the Dhimmi state that it will allow the media to spread pro-Islam propaganda even on Christmas Day.
I understand that the UAE is quite liberal by Islamic standards. I guess it's nice that they'll get a church, but it's an empty gesture in the larger scheme of things.
Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop
Qatar is not in UAE ! It's a separate country.
Hope the Vatican is planning to provide body armor to the congregants.
&
"My alternative Christmas message this year is peace on earth and good will to all humankind .."
That's an "alternative" Christmas message? Wow! How long will it be before the Muslims claim they 'invented' Christmas?
She spent an astonishing amount of time in attending lectures and demonstrations, distributing literature for the Junior Anti-Sex League, preparing banners for Hate Week, making collections for the savings campaign, and suchlike activities. It paid, she said, it was camouflage. If you kept the small rules you could break the big ones.
I saw a filmed report about a year ago on the construction of the first Church in Qatar...(don't know if this is the church in question).
It was inside a large building complex frequented mostly by non-Qatarese and had no sign designating its presence. When asked why, a functionary of Qatar'd government said something to the effect that "religion is a very sensitive issue here."
No one seemed to get the irony. The report droned on as if the opening of the church - minus any advertisment of its existence - was the greatest gesture of magnanimity since Czar Alexander freed the serfs.
Qatar is not in UAE ! It's a separate country.
Oops. I thought it was in the UAE.
Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44).
Pretty harsh words. For most of the time Jesus seemed to 'hate the sin, but love the sinner'. Not so with lies. Frank - you're right on the money...
Concerned Citizen:
I went to your link to read about Queen Elizabeth II standing shoulder to shoulder with a fully burka'd 'liberated woman' and it makes me laugh actually.
How can people be so stupid to believe the irrational and outrageous statements from muslims like this lady? How can they actually believe it? I think most of the non-muslims just hear 'blah blah blah' and smile and nod... thinking that a show of humoring the muslim bastards will calm them down. And this willful ignorance goes up to the very top of the social strata and to the highest levels of goverance everywhere.
It's time for a sea change.
My parish took up a special collection for this church early in the summer. The catholic bishop for the Gulf spoke to us about it personally. I am pleased to hear that the church is REALLY happening. But I fear that the publicity in the news will undermine it. Catholics in the Gulf exist in secret. The only thing that will save the Doha church is that Arabs are only slightly better with English than Westerners are with Arabic.