Kuwait To Seek Closure Of "Illegal" Sikh Temple

Kuwaiti authorities will seek to close a Sikh temple (gurudwara) that has been operating in theemirate since 1985 in contravention of Islamic law, the municipality's chairman toldAl-Rai Al-Aam newspaper in Kuwait today.

"The municipality will ask the interior ministry to close the temple after obtaining a permit from the publicprosecution," Ahmad Al-Adasani said, adding, "We will not allow any abuse of our laws and toIslam".

Islamic affairs minister Ahmad Baqer, for his part warned that the temple wasunlicensed and "the concerned authorities must shut it down."

The temple has been operating without a license in a private house in a Kuwait city suburb in violation ofKuwaiti law that permits only monotheistic religions to have places of worship.

Sikh priest Arjun Singh said yesterday that his temple was serving the 13,000-strongSikh community in Kuwait and that authorities had made no attempt to shut it down. Singh urgedKuwaiti authorities to grant a license to the Sikhs to build a bigger temple.

More than 99 per cent of Kuwait's 800,000-strong national population are Muslim. Of the oil-rich emirate's 1.4million foreigners, around 400,000 are Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs.