Christianity in Kuwait
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Christianity in Kuwait is a minority religion, accounting for 10-15% of the country's population, or 650,000 people. Kuwait's Christinas can be divided into 2 groups. The first group, who make up the vast majority of Christians in Kuwait, are foreigners/foreign residents from various countries around the world. The second group are Christians who have Kuwaiti citizenship. They number roughly 200 people.
[edit] Expatriate Christians
The denominations of both citizen and foreign Christians in Kuwait include, but are not limited to, the following:
- 140,000 Catholics in Kuwait. There is a cathedral in Kuwait City, which belongs to the Vicariate Apostolic of Kuwait. The Catholic Vicariate is largely made up of Asians from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and Arab Christians from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, and Syria. Maronite Christians, mostly from Lebanon, also worship at the Catholic cathedral in Kuwait city.
- 67,500 Orthodox Christians, at least. The Greek Orthodox Church has about 3,500 members, while the Armenian Orthodox Church has about 4,000 members. The Coptic Orthodox Church has about 60,000 members. Totals for both the Greek Catholic (Eastern Rite) Church membership and Indian Orthodox Syrian Church membership totals are unavailable.
- 50,000 Protestants in Kuwait. The Anglican Church has about 115 members. The National Evangelical Church has about 15,000 members. There are also other Christian Protestant denominations in the country, with tens of thousands of members. These denominations include Seventh-Day Adventists.
- Other Christian denominations include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) which has a ward (congregation) of approximately 300 that meets in a villa in Salmiyah. Among it's members includes the U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait, Matthew H. Tueller.
In Kuwait, it is not allowed to proselytize Muslims. However, the constitution allows for religious freedom. Many churches exist in Kuwait. Kuwait's largest cathedral is situated in the eastern part of Kuwait city.
[edit] Kuwaiti Christians
Kuwait's native Christian population roughly numbers around 300. Christian Kuwaiti citizens originally come from Turkey and Iraq, their families have been in Kuwait for over a hundred years, and speak Arabic with a Kuwaiti dialect. They have assimilated into Kuwaiti society, like their Muslim counterparts. The rest, roughly 150 or so, are more recent arrivals in the 1950s, mostly Palestinians who left Palestine after 1948, as well as a few families from Lebanon and Syria, who were given Kuwaiti citizenship. Their dialect and culture remains more Levantine than Kuwaiti, and their cuisine is also a sign of their ties to their original homeland. Although they are not as assimilated as the former group, the latter group is just as patriotic and tend to be proud of their adopted homeland, with many serving in the army, police, civil and foreign service. Most of Kuwait's citizen Christians belong to 12 large families, with the Shammas (from Turkey) and the Shuhaibar (from Palestine) families being some of the more prominent ones.
Kuwait is the only GCC country besides Bahrain to have a local Christian population who hold citizenship.
A 1980 law now prohibits the naturalization of non-Muslim spouses of Kuwaitis. While Muslim Kuwaiti male citizens are allowed to transmit their citizenship to their spouses, Christian Kuwaiti males are not allowed to do so. They can only transmit their citizenship to their descendants, but not to their spouses.
