The King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, has donated a portion of Bahrain's land for the construction of the Kingdom's second Coptic church.
This new site of worship will reside in Manama, the Kingdom's capital, and will serve the estimated 1,500 Coptic families who live in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Agenzia Fides reports.
The donation was confirmed by Coptic Orthodox priest Royce George, and followed a meeting in April between King Hamad and Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II, in Egypt. At that meeting, Hamad had praised Bahrain's "religious tolerance", despite claims to the contrary from international groups.
In September Hamad dissolved the Shiite opposition movement al-Wefaq, RT reports. Rights advocates in Britain accused the monarch, a Sunni Muslim, of discrimination against Bahrain's Shia Muslim majority.
Philip Luther of Amnesty International called it a "flagrant attack on freedom of expression and association and a brazen attempt to suppress criticism of the government in Bahrain."
In June Hamad passed amendments to the law which meant that Kingdom's political sphere would be out of bounds for anyone with an active religious role.
In 2013 King Hamad gave land to the Catholic Church: 9,000 square meters in the region of Awali. Construction began in spring 2014 for what would be the Kingdom's Catholic Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of Arabia.
