Pope Francis’ UAE visit means a lot more than just the pleasant optics of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics’ religious head greeting his flock. The visit was historic in many ways: the UAE kicked off its “year of tolerance” and became the first Muslim nation in 1,400 years to invite the pontiff to the Arabian peninsula, host to two of Islam’s holiest sites. The visit fulfils the Pope’s outreach to Muslims at a time when it is important to promote communication among faiths. The signals were positive — as the UAE, among Arab nations, is one country that allows no leeway to Islamist terrorism, even if it has to be a virtual police state to secure itself. The. Pope made all the right gestures, like arriving in a open Popemobile, unlike his predecessors who used bulletproof vehicles.
The importance of harmony among multiple faiths has never been stressed more than in an era of tumultuous events. The Pope’s unprecedented open-air mass, attended by thousands of Catholic faithful and some of other faiths too, exemplified the spirit with which the host nation opened its arms to the pontiff.
The UAE’s transformation from an arms-running entrepot to an uber-modern state with the finest infrastructure for global trade and a couple of model cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been predicated upon harmony among people of different faiths. Given the situation in nearby Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya, the environment in which migrants from over 160 countries live in the UAE should be the world’s envy. It was appropriate then that the Pope should be so well received there.
