Religious Freedom in Dubai: One Hindu Temple, Half-a-Million Hindus

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DUBAI, UAE, July 12, 2015 (BBC): There is little outward sign of any religion other than Islam in Dubai, but the city is quietly (and modestly) tolerant of other faiths. Rulers have ensured people with different beliefs have a place to worship. The UAE, of which Dubai is a part, has crippling restrictions on freedom of speech. There’s widespread media censorship and dozens of activists are in jail. But it also has a little-known history of religious tolerance.

In 1958 Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, father of Dubai’s current ruler, permitted a Hindu temple to be built on the roof of the souk (open-air market place). You reach it today along a lane lined with shops selling figurines of Gods and Goddesses and garlands of roses and marigolds. The only such temple in a country which now holds perhaps half a million Hindus, this little makeshift space, aromatic with sandalwood, hosts tens of thousands of worshippers each week, both Hindus and Sikhs.

Source: Hinduism Today