Bahrain

Bahrain is a small archipelago in the Persian Gulf, made up of about 30 islands connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. With roughly 1.5 million inhabitants concentrated in a tiny territory, it is one of the most densely populated and most urbanized countries in the world: virtually the entire population lives in cities, with the capital Manama as its economic and cultural heart.

Its history is ancient. It was the center of the Dilmun civilization, a prosperous Bronze Age trading hub, and for more than two thousand years it lived off pearl diving, an activity that shaped its identity until the discovery of oil in the 20th century. Today, with smaller reserves than its neighbors, Bahrain is reinventing itself as the Gulf’s banking and services hub.

Islam is the state religion and permeates public life, with Sunnis and Shias sharing the same territory, not always without tension. At the same time, the country is known for a relative openness: Christian, Hindu and other faith communities, mostly made up of foreign workers, have their own places of worship. In Awali stands the Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest in the Arabian Peninsula.

The vast majority of the workforce is made up of immigrants, mainly from South Asia, who sustain the economy and form the backbone of the local Christian churches. These foreigners enjoy freedom of worship in private settings. For the Bahraini born Muslim who decides to follow Christ, however, the path is narrow: pressure from family and community is intense.

Bahrain lives the contrast between the modernity of Manama’s skyscrapers and the strength of Islamic and tribal traditions. It is a nation small on the map, but strategic as a bridge between peoples, cultures and faiths, where the gospel easily reaches foreigners but still barely touches the heart of the Bahraini people.