The church in Qatar

This week we’re considering the fate of the church in a small Gulf state few had even heard of just a few years ago – Qatar. Before the tiny Arab nation controversially won the right to host the football World Cup, Qatar was fairly unheard-of in the West. And as millions of tourists and fans have descended on the country this month to take in the festival of sport, hundreds of millions more are watching intently from afar. With Qatar in the global spotlight, how are the Gulf nation’s small community of Christians faring? This week we speak with an expert on the persecuted church in the Middle East, and then an Anglican vicar leading a church in the capital Doha to find out what it’s like to be a believer in Qatar, and if the World Cup is a good or bad thing for the church.