Pope’s visit showed the world the UAE’s inclusive side

It was also a rare achievement for the UAE to enable a ‘declaration of fraternity’ that was jointly signed by the Pope and the Grand Imam with a pledge to work together in perpetuity and reject violence and radicalism.

The recently concluded Pope Francis’ visit to the UAE has been hailed as a milestone in interfaith harmony and religious tolerance.

But the pontiff’s visit — the first by a Catholic Pope to the Arabian Peninsula — is also a brilliant move by the UAE to promote religious inclusion in the Muslim world and quell Islamophobia in the West — both in one grand stroke.

The sight of Pope Francis conducting an open-air mass at the Zayed Sports City stadium in Abu Dhabi was a defining image that is powerful enough to dispel the widely held Western notion that Christian faith is in peril in the Middle East.

In front of an estimated 180,000 people, the pope delivered his sermon, drawing heavily from the Bible, as the UAE’s Minister of Tolerance, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, and 4,000 Muslims, including Emirati government officials, stood in deference.

These images were relayed live across the world by nearly 1,000 media outlets, and were in stark contrast to the otherwise grim, negative Middle East narrative that their audience is fed on.

It is true that amidst political unrest and sectarian violence that have gripped the region, reports of persecution of Christians and burning of churches have raised concerns in the western world.

In July last year, at a prayer meeting in Italy attended by heads of churches from the Middle East, Pope Francis had condemned the “complicit silence” of many towards Christian persecution in the region.

Vatican reports say the number of Christians in the Middle East has dwindled in recent years as a consequence of war, persecution, and political and economic uncertainty.

But the Pope’s UAE visit and the celebration of the public mass is a political reaffirmation that Christians and their religious freedom will be defended in the Muslim world.

And for the West, where a wave of Islamophobia is sweeping across many countries, the UAE has risen as a beacon of religious tolerance and inclusivity.

And the emirates could not have chosen a better way to get that message across by having the Catholic Pope and Sheikh Ahmed El Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, which is considered to be the highest seat of learning in Islam, on its soil at the same time.

Pope is the spiritual head of 1.2 billion Catholics — comprising half of the Christians in the world.

Grand Imam is the spiritual leader of Sunni Muslims, who account for 85 per cent of world’s total Muslim population.

When the tallest spiritual leaders of the two dominant religions met, it was an embrace of each other’s shared values.

It was also a reconciliation of their differences — new and old, which will not fail to strike a chord with their millions of followers.

In the words of senior Hindu priest Swami Brahmavihari of BAPS, who spoke at the Human Fraternity Conference ahead of the pope’s visit, “when two religious leaders meet, the hostilities between their followers melt away”.

It was also a rare achievement for the UAE to enable a ‘declaration of fraternity’ that was jointly signed by the pope and the grand imam with a pledge to work together in perpetuity and reject violence and radicalism.

The declaration is a roadmap for the rest of the world, making the UAE an example of tolerance and religious inclusion. It also sends out a strong message that all religions share common human values. If they can flourish together in the UAE, they can do so elsewhere.

And the pontiff ’s visit is a masterstroke that showcased the country’s political will and vision to make tolerance a way of life in the UAE.

In the high offices of the government, in the religious institutions and media rooms, on the streets, in the homes and hearts of its people hailing from over 200 different nationalities, the UAE has turned tolerance into a resolution. In essence, tolerance and inclusion have become an abiding emotion in the country. That’s what the UAE has achieved from the papal visit.