World
Fledgling steps in the United Arab Emirates to acknowledge religious diversity
At a reception in London, the UAE embraces its non-Muslim minorities — including Jews
April 11, 2019 11:08
By, simon rocker
2 min read
At a reception in London, the UAE embraces its non-Muslim minorities — including Jews
April 11, 2019 11:08BySimon Rocker, simon rocker
When Jean and her husband arrived in Dubai a few years ago, a couple of days before Pesach, they knew no one else in the emirate. But they soon found they were not the only Jews there and were able to sit down for a Seder with another Jewish family.
By its own admission, the Jewish community of the United Arab Emirates, composed of expats from around the world, is an informal one, quietly meeting to celebrate Shabbat and festivals over a number of years.
But this year its existence is being more openly acknowledged as part of the UAE’s “Year of Tolerance”.
The UAE’s Jewish community earns a chapter in a new book about religious diversity in the Gulf, Celebrating Tolerance, edited by the Reverend Andrew Thompson, canon of Dubai’s Anglican Church, and published to mark the theme of the year.
Tolerance may have negative tones in English as in simply “putting up with”. But the Arabic word taasamu has much more positive connotations, Canon Thompson explained at a book launch in the UAE’s London embassy last week: “It means love and acceptance.”
Tolerance, he said, was “not only being talked about but lived and this book is evidence of that story”.
While intolerance too often seemed the default setting in the world today, the UAE initiative was “good news coming out of the Middle East,” he said.
Besides the main Jewish group in Dubai, a circle of Jewish academics meets at the branch of the New York University in Abu Dhabi.
Dubai’s Jewish group have had to practise their own internal tolerance to accommodate Orthodox and Reform preferences. So there is an alternative egalitarian prayer space, as well as one when men and women sit apart.
“What is wonderful about our Dubai community that perhaps does not readily occur elsewhere in the Jewish community,” says Lee, interviewed in the book, “is that we are all accepting of each other and tolerant of our religious differences.”
The UAE’s London ambassador Sulaiman Almazroui linked the Year of Tolerance to a broader Islamic view of co-existence, citing the 2016 Marrakhesh Declaration on non-Muslim minorities who live in Muslim countries and its commitment to “a citizenship inclusive of religious diversity”.
“I think we are pioneers in creating this culture,” he said. “Maybe it will become contagious across the Gulf and neighbouring countries.”
While the book records the reticence of some Jews in openly acknowledging their religion, Canon White anticipates the community will have “more visibility” in future.
As she celebrated her first Seder in Dubai, Jean recalled: “As we read the Hebrew prayers aloud we paused, and we heard the call to prayer for the nearby mosque. Our prayers in that living room and the prayers from the mosque were going up to heaven at the same time.
“Muslim and Jews, some would say we are so different from each other, yet at that moment, I felt in my heart we have so much in common.”
