I wonder how very religious Muslims coming into the West think when they see people of different religions getting along with each other and worshipping as they please.
Religious Intolerance in the Gulf States
Dateline
by Hilal Khashan
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2016
83
Expatriate Christians wed in Abu Dhabi. There are now more than three and a half million expatriate Christians working in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, mostly Catholics from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan.
Interest in the state of Middle East Christians has largely focused on the quality of their lives in the Levant, Egypt, and Southern Sudan, predominantly Christian areas before the rise of Islam that still contain sizeable Christian minorities. By contrast, little attention has been paid to Christians in the Arabian Peninsula, which had no indigenous Christian presence in Islamic times.
However, the oil boom of the 1970s created a tremendous demand for foreign labor in the Persian Gulf rentier states. Unsurprisingly, the number of workers needed to drive the emerging economies of the Gulf states was bound to include significant numbers of Christians. There are now more than three and a half million expatriate Christians working in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, mostly Catholics from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. As their numbers increased, the question of how—or whether—to allow them to openly practice their faith became a significant issue.
The Current Status of Arabian Christianity
In the West, the freedom to worship in any way one chooses has been a bedrock value at least since the late eighteenth century.
Continue reading at:
Religious Intolerance in the Gulf States: Dateline
Religious Intolerance in the Gulf States
Dateline
by Hilal Khashan
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2016
83
Expatriate Christians wed in Abu Dhabi. There are now more than three and a half million expatriate Christians working in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, mostly Catholics from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan.
Interest in the state of Middle East Christians has largely focused on the quality of their lives in the Levant, Egypt, and Southern Sudan, predominantly Christian areas before the rise of Islam that still contain sizeable Christian minorities. By contrast, little attention has been paid to Christians in the Arabian Peninsula, which had no indigenous Christian presence in Islamic times.
However, the oil boom of the 1970s created a tremendous demand for foreign labor in the Persian Gulf rentier states. Unsurprisingly, the number of workers needed to drive the emerging economies of the Gulf states was bound to include significant numbers of Christians. There are now more than three and a half million expatriate Christians working in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, mostly Catholics from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. As their numbers increased, the question of how—or whether—to allow them to openly practice their faith became a significant issue.
The Current Status of Arabian Christianity
In the West, the freedom to worship in any way one chooses has been a bedrock value at least since the late eighteenth century.
Continue reading at:
Religious Intolerance in the Gulf States: Dateline
