Religion in Kuwait

frank james

Hi all,

My name is Frank and i posted in this forum many years ago under the avatar Franklin J.

It has been a while and I could not access the old account, so i created a new one.

I am living and working in Kuwait in the Middle East where the Islamic religion is EVERYTHING. it is like the Watchtower all over again. A chilling scenario for the reformed Jehovahs Witness.

Jehovahs Witnesses do not operate here in Kuwait (unless they are very far underground) and the Catholic Church has only one representative church operating here (for expatriots). Islam is the STATE religion and its worshippers live it in their daily lives, much like Jehovahs Witnesses. Like Watchtower, Islam controls the day to day activities of their lives. Women are affected the most obviously, as they are covered in the Burqa or at the least a head scarf. Although Kuwait considers itself the more "enlightened " of the Gulf region states, where women can dress any way they like, most are covered. Some that have been educated in the West will dress western, but very few. The men dress any way they like.

There are the religious moderates, the dedicated, and the crazy. But this Islamic faith is the mainspring that drives it all over here. The biggest insult you could tell a Kuwaiti is that he is "not religious"...the Theocracy rules their lives.

There is a call to prayer 5 times a day, prayer rooms are everywhere. So many parrallels to Jehovahs Witneesses.

I look forward to catching up with all of you again.

regards

Frank

[email protected]

asilentone

Interesting post!

Broken Promises

I could not stand living in a country like that.

respectful_observer

Just as an aside, JW's are active and organized in Kuwait. The government basically turns a blind eye. They meet in smaller groups for meetings, but are permitted to meet for assemblies, except they are presented in different format than what most JW's would recognize-- more of a "business conference".

frigginconfused

Playing in the sandbox huh? I did that for a while.

Being in the middle east gave me insight on what really is going on in the world.

Our culture in the states is like a teen girl with daddys credit card. All we care about is consumerism.

They still operate as they did when Muhammed was alive. They have a continuous group memory that spans thousands of years. Its in their DNA. So they are like a evil wise old man. The little girl with the credit card is gonna end up his bitch!

skeeter1

Does the government issue people an identificiation card that has their religion on it? Or is everyone under Islamic law? What's their constitution look like? Does it have a default to Islamic law? Do the police enfoce Islamic law (i.e. take people to jail)?

Thanks,
Skeeter