Ghareeb leads the 70-member National Evangelical Church in Kuwait City. The church is housed on a former American mission project site in the heart of downtown.

Ghareeb, who has traveled extensively around the world and speaks fluent English, said he is "grateful to God" for the opportunity to participate in the Assembly.

"My purpose here is to show, as a Kuwaiti citizen, our gratitude as a country for setting us free from the tyrant Saddam Hussein in 1991," he said.

Evangelical Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches. Kuwaiti churches have received Presbyterian Disaster Assistance funds.

"Thank you for what God has done through you," he said.

He said his hope is for peace in the Middle East, so that "love will prevail."

Christian churches in Kuwait have been active partners in humanitarian relief to the citizens of Iraq during the current war. Much of that relief, he said, has come from the United States.

Ghareeb believes his church is called to foster dialogue between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East, to encourage them to explore their similarities rather than fight over their differences.

People in the West must come to realize that not all terrorists are Muslim.

"Terrorism is not exclusive to Muslims," he said. "There are Christian terrorists, Hindu terrorists, Jewish terrorists. Such people are narrow-minded extremists."

Arab Christians are in the "peculiar position" of having lived alongside Muslims for centuries, he said.

"This is the role of the Arab Christians after 9-11," he said, "to act as a bridge. You don't know the Muslims as we do. The church can build a bridge to (that) society."

Kuwait's citizens enjoy many freedoms, he said, but there are lines they still cannot cross. Christians cannot openly evangelize in public, for instance. The right to vote is restricted to civilian men over the age of 21, although the government is debating whether to extend the right to women.

"Pray for us," he urged his brothers and sisters at this Assembly, "that we can continue to have religious freedom and for more freedom."

There will be a presentation on Middle East issues from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Worldwide Ministries Division area of the Exhibit Hall. Ghareeb is scheduled to participate, along with an Ecumenical Advisory Delegate from Iraq and other guests from the Middle East.