A Church Grows in Qatar

Prodigal church:The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Doha, Qatar, which held its first service today, is the first Christian church to open its doors in this particular jut of the Arabian Peninsula since the 7th century's arrival of Islam. (Photos courtesy of Omar Chatriwala)

It shouldn't be such an extraordinarily notable event. Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and whatever else people choose to erect to their deities and worship in should, zoning laws permitting, be allowed to go up wherever people choose to build them. But in most parts of the hyper-Islamic world, it's forbidden to build Christian churches or any house of worship that isn't a mosque.

That's what makes the opening on Saturday of the domed, $15 million Catholic Church of the Lady of Rosary in Doha, Qatar's capital, such a remarkable achievement for Christian communities in the Middle East. It's not quite an achievement for Qatar so much as a commendable, belated concession to tolerance after 14 centuries of banning non-Islamic public worship. Qatar follows Saudi Arabia's puritanical form of Wahhabi Islam, which resembles the 17th century's Plymouth Colony with Arabic subtitles. But the Vatican thinks, perhaps too optimistically, that there are as many as 100,000 Catholics in that country of about 900,000.

But it can now be said with a straight face: The nation, and the emir, that brought you Al Jazeera 24/7, is bringing Christ back to the Arabian Peninsula.

"The 2,700-seat church," the Associated Press reported, "was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Out of respect for local sensitivities, the exterior does not feature any religious symbols that identify the building as a place of Christian worship." But the building's angular roof, reaching up from all sides like exalted hands toward what looks suspiciously like a budding spire, makes it rather obvious: this is no supermarket.

Some 3,000 people crowded into the building for the first service, an epic five-hour affair that featured a chalice donated by by Pope Benedict XVI (or rather, by a few million donors around the world whose Sunday generosity is distilled into gifts bearing Benedict's signature). It featured three dozen bishops and priests. And it featured, if not the emir himself, at least the deputy prime minister and Prime Minister who doubles up as minister of energy and industry, delivering a speech worthy of a Vatican ecumenism conference: The message, he said, is clearly "a message of the merciful and it is a message to people to accept the good features of every religion for one’s own betterment and also for the improvement of relations between communities and people of different cultures."

Meanwhile, the American embassy in Doha wasted no time posting fresh warnings to American nationals about potential terrorist attacks that the new church, in the perverse calculus of religious fanaticism, may inspire: "Extremists," the embassy warned, "may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests. Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, such as the new Christian Church complex in Doha, schools, public areas and locales where Americans gather."

So much for safe havens.

Here's my new profile of Qatar.