The most recent episode involving Islamists occurred after a member of the royal family called for the construction of an Armenian church.
During a visit to the Armenian Orthodox diocese in al-Salmiyah last week, Sheikha Fariha al-Ahmad al-Sabah, head of the Kuwaiti Association for the Ideal Family, declared her support for Armenians living in Kuwait to obtain a plot of land for a church.
Islamist MP Walid al-Tabtabaie said he was surprised by Sheikha Fariha’s pledge, adding that the question of licensing houses of worship is the responsibility of the state, specifically the ministry of Islamic endowment, and the local municipality.
He insisted that all these matters should be determined by the views of the religious authority at the ministry "and should not be left for personal and political courtesies."
Al-Tabtabaie went further and invoked the issue of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"As the chairman of the Kuwait-Azerbaijan Friendship Committee, I know well what Armenia did when it occupied the Muslim Nagorno-Karabakh, which belongs to Azerbaijan," he said.
"Its army punished the Muslims there by damaging and destroying some mosques and desecrating others."
The MP asked whether Armenia "should be rewarded for this by granting it a plot of land to build a church in Kuwait."
Al-Tabtabaie urged the royal court to "take a position toward members of the family who undertake initiatives that are not governed by the state’s laws, regulations, and the authorized concerned official parties."
Islamist MP Bader al-Dahum also called on Sheikha Fariha to stay away from "statements that inflame the feelings of Muslims."
He said that she was not in any official position that would allow her to issue such a statement or "to make promises."
There are about 5,000 Armenians out of a total of 450,000 Christians living in Kuwait. They all share nine churches.Some political observers say that because Sheikha Fariha does not have an executive role, her statement does not call for such a fierce reaction, particularly because she was offering moral support to the Armenian community.
There are about 5,000 Armenians out of a total of 450,000 Christians living in Kuwait. They all share nine churches.
The Citizenship Law, amended in 1981, bans granting citizenship to Christians, although the Kuwaiti Constitution grants equal rights to all citizens and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, language, or religion.
This is not the first case of its kind. The emirate went through a similar crisis in 2010 when the Kuwait municipality approved allocating a site to build a Roman Catholic church in al-Mahbulah.
But the local municipal council rejected the decision in a majority vote, prompting a protest walk-out from the session by the members who agreed to building the church.
Last February, another Islamist MP, Osama al-Munawar, called for removing existing churches and banning the construction of new ones.
He also demanded supervising the Shia practice of khums (tithe), in which the faithful pay out one-fifth of their profits to their religious authority.
Meanwhile, the Islamists escalated the crisis with the Shia by demanding government supervision of hussainiyas (Shia community centers) in Kuwait "like what we do with mosques," sparking a row in parliament.
MP Muhammad Hayif, who made this request, announced his intention to query the Minister of Islamic Endowment Jamal al-Shehab, which could break open a crack in the parliamentary majority.
One of his fellow Islamist members asked Hayif to avoid questioning the minister and to fast for three days for not acting on his intention to question the minister.
Member of Parliament calls for questioning even reached first Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Humud al-Sabah.
MP al-Tabtabaie threatened to probe the interior minister if he does not release Nahar al-Hajiri, who was detained after burning the Iranian flag last week.
