Pope Francis in the United Arab Emirates: The sheikh deceives

Fliegerstaffel, horse escort, military honor formation: Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, drove in greeting of Pope Francis in front of his palace on everything that his emirate has to offer in splendor. Only the small black compact car, in which the Pontifex drove up, did not quite fit into the picture.

There are reasons behind the efforts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE): For the first time, a head of the Catholic Church is visiting the Arabian Peninsula. His 48-hour visit has two important items: On Monday evening, Pope Francis participated in an interfaith meeting with representatives of Islam and other religions. And on Tuesday, he holds a trade show in the largest football stadium in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to attract more than 120,000 people. It will be the largest celebration of the Christian faith in the Arabian Peninsula since the emergence of Islam.

The UAE wants to stage a pope's visit as a haven of tolerance in the Middle East. The term has been a slogan for years in the image of the Gulf State: Since 2016, there is a Ministry of tolerance, in November 2017 Dubai inaugurated a tolerance bridge, head of state Khalifa bin Zayed called the whole year 2019 to the Year of Tolerance, in which the UAE should become the world capital of tolerance of the same.

Mohammed bin Rashid & I were Delighted to meet with Pope Francis in our homeland of tolerance. Peace, stability and development for peoples and societies. pic.twitter.com/E9zteMJ0ZC

The country's leadership points out that people from more than 200 countries live together permanently peacefully and without tension. According to official figures, 13 percent of the population are Christians, most of them guest workers from East Asia, Africa or Europe. There are now more than 40 churches. There are also temples for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. A synagogue has also been in Dubai for three years. However, it shows the limits of tolerance: the municipality keeps the exact location of the villa in which it meets secret for safety reasons.

Fatwa from Saudi Arabia

Nevertheless, the UAE is much wider in terms of religious tolerance than its big neighbor and Saudi Arabia's main ally. There, in 2000, the Standing Committee on Legal Issues, in which the top five Islamic jurists of the kingdom are represented, ruled: "The Arabian Peninsula is the sacrosanct base of Islam that no unbeliever may violate." So it is in a legal opinion, which is still available on the official website of the Kingdom. "It is needless to say that the construction of churches for the worshipers of the cross is prohibited there," says the Fatwa. "There can not coexist two religions."

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The Emirates thus override the religious leadership in Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, Muslims and Christians in the country are not equal: A Christian may marry a Muslim, a Christian but not a Muslim. Christians are not allowed to proselytize, a Muslim who converts to Christianity faces the death penalty.

Reforms are just graces

Human rights groups accuse the sheikhs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai of using the slogan of religious tolerance to disguise their political intolerance. This is demonstrated, for example, by the example of Ahmed Mansoor: the activist had publicly criticized the state leadership and was sentenced last year in a secret trial to ten years in prison. "Although they ardently claim to be a progressive, tolerant, rule of law, the UAE has become frighteningly unsafe for academics, journalists, activists and critics in recent years," writes Human Rights Watch on the occasion of the Pope's visit.

The course of the UAE leadership is similar to the actions of the Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi or the Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. They stage themselves as advocates of religious minorities, fighters against Islamic extremism and urge reforms in Islam. However, they are primarily concerned with making good with their Western allies and thus justifying their draconian action against critics in Germany. Because this policy is not accompanied by a strengthening of democratic institutions. On the contrary, the reforms are nothing more than proofs of mercy by the rulers, who grant or refuse them at will.

That's how the popes ruled for centuries.