Christians mark Christmas in Bahrain with prayers; King offers world leaders best wishes
By Habib Toumi
MANAMA: In keeping with royal traditions, the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, has sent cables of congratulations and best wishes to the leaders of several countries celebrating Christmas.
“HM the King wished the leaders health and happiness and their people further progress and prosperity,” a statement carried by Bahrain News Agency said.
“HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa expressed his wishes for peace, security and progress to prevail throughout the world for the sake of humanity.”
On Wednesday evening, Christians from several communities in Bahrain celebrated Christmas Eve in a joyous spirit and amid expressions of gratitude for the tolerance they enjoy in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.
Hundreds of Christians gathered at the various churches in Bahrain where they prayed for peace and serenity across the world while shopping malls set up giant Christmas trees with hundreds of light balls, in different colors, spiraled around them.
Bahrain has 19 officially-registered churches. The first Christian church was built in 1905 by American missionaries soon after their arrival. A year later, the National Evangelical Church became the first church to offer services in Bahrain.
There are currently two Roman Catholic churches: The Sacred Heart Church in Manama, and the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Visitation in Awali, in central Bahrain, the largest in the Gulf.
During his historic visit to Bahrain on November 3-6, 2022, Pope visited the churches and celebrated Mass for some 30,000 faithful from 111 countries, where he spoke of love, and stressed that the spiral of violence plaguing the world can end by always loving everyone.
Under the reforms launched by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa soon after he became the ruler of the country in 1999, the right to religious freedom is guaranteed by law and is enshrined in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Constitution.
Article 18 states: “There shall be no discrimination among citizens on the basis of sex, origin, language, religion or creed” while Article 22 states that “freedom of conscience is absolute. The state guarantees the inviolability of worship, and the freedom to perform religious rites and hold religious parades and meetings in accordance with the customs observed in the country.”
Most Christian families arrived in Bahrain late in the 19th century, mainly from Iraq and Turkey. They were followed in the 1940s by more Arab Christians, mostly from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan, who came to work as teachers, doctors and businessmen.
According to the Christian community, Bahraini Christians constitute around 1% of the total population, but the number of Christians from other nationalities, living and working in Bahrain, is over 100,000.
Alice Thomas Samaan in July 2011 became the first Christian woman diplomat from Bahrain to be appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
She had previously made history by becoming in 2005 the first woman to chair parliamentary sessions in the Arab world.
Another Bahraini woman, Hoda Ezra Nonoo also made history when she became in 2008 the first Jewish ambassador from an Arab and predominantly Muslim country to be appointed to the US.
Hoda, a businesswoman turned diplomat, was also the first non-Muslim woman to head a human rights society and the first Jewish woman Member of Parliament in Bahrain.
Bahrain is home to around 40 Jews, mostly descendants of families who came from Iraq, Iran and India and who settled in the island kingdom in the early 1900s. They have an officially registered synagogue and a Jewish cemetery.
In 2017, King Hamad in an opinion piece “Dispelling ignorance, the enemy of peace” published by the Washington Times, stressed the significance of religious freedom in Bahrain.
“As Bahrainis, we drew from our national heritage as a beacon of religious tolerance in the Arab world during a time when religion has been too frequently used throughout the world as a divine sanction to spread hate and dissension,” he said.
“Yet in Bahrain, religious diversity is a blessing to our people. We welcome our Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical church communities. We are proud that our Hindu nationals can worship in a 200-year-old temple complete with their images, just around the corner from the Sikh temple and the mosques.
“We celebrate our small, but precious, Jewish community, who feel free to wear their yarmulke and worship in their own synagogue, which, we are informed, is the only one in the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, our Jewish community plays a very active role at the highest levels of society.
“We wanted to protect our religious pluralism for future generations, so we have enshrined this in law, which guarantees everyone the right to worship unhindered in safety and to build their houses of worship.”
