KUWAIT CITY, Jan 24: The Director-General of the Kuwait Municipality Engineer Ahmed Al-Manfouhi has revealed plans for the allocation of new sites for the construction of churches in Kuwait based on requests submitted to it saying the issue will soon be referred to the Municipal Council to take an appropriate decision, reports Al- Rai daily.

Al-Manfouhi said the role of the Municipality is limited to the allocation of sites based on the approvals it receives. He stressed all applications are subject to a series of studies, including the approval of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.

Meanwhile, Rev Emmanuel Gharib of the National Evangelical Church of Kuwait (NECK) told the daily he hopes of getting approval from the Municipal Council for the allocation of new sites to build churches in Kuwait since the number of Christians in the country is increasing year after year.

He went on to say, “We hope that the Municipal Council will be positive in this matter and take into account the necessity, especially given that the current congestion in the church puts lives at risk and causes many problems.”

For his part, Hai Hai in a statement told the daily “Sharia forbids the construction of churches in Kuwait, or in any part in the Arabian Gulf according to Islam. “However, if the old ones need renovation this can be done.” He once again stressed that building new churches in the Arabian Gulf is totally forbidden and is a great sin.”