United Arab Emirates bills itself as interfaith leader
The UAE, a financial powerhouse and growing power in the Arab world, is committed to showing Western allies that all are welcome to worship there.
(The Christian Science Monitor) Indian women place candles at an outdoor grotto of the Virgin Mary as couples from Uganda and Nigeria pour into the nearby chapel. Arab Chaldeans, Maronites, and Latin Catholics laugh together as they enter an Arabic-language mass. Egyptian and Sudanese families gather next door at the Coptic church, and English expatriates head into the Anglican church. Filipinos line up for mashed purple yam cakes and polvorón shortbread at an outdoor bake sale in the church courtyard, with the Islamic call to prayer from the neighboring Jesus Son of Mariam Mosque ringing out overhead.
This is not an international festival; it’s a Sunday in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
A financial powerhouse and growing diplomatic and military power in the Arab world, the UAE is also billing itself as an interfaith leader. It declared 2019 to be a national “year of tolerance,” with a visit by Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi in February—the first papal visit to the Gulf.
