A Kuwaiti parliamentarian is set to submit a draft law banning the construction of churches and non-Islamic places of worship in the Gulf state, it was reported at the weekend.

Kuwaiti Member of Parliament (MP) Osama Al-Munawer announced on Twitter he plans to submit a draft law calling for the removal of all churches in the country. However, he later clarified that existing churches should remain but the construction of new non-Islamic places of worship should be banned.

Fellow MP, Mohammad Hayef supported the draft law. “Kuwait already has an excessive number of churches compared to the country’s Christian minority”, he was quoted as saying by the Kuwait Times newspaper.

The country’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs recently granted a licence for the construction of a new church, which Hayef described as “an error”.