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Thanks for the links. I read the article. I hope you did. Its not exactly a ringing endorsement of religous freedom in the U.A.E. In any case, I was in Dubai. The list you provided had one church there. Someone else said there are four. I never saw one. But I imagine I just didn't look hard enough. If I remember correctly from when I was there the total population of Dubai was about 800,000 people. Of that number about 640,000 were expats. According to CIA estimates about 8 percent or 50,000 were westerners. If 20 percent of that number are practicing Christians you basically have four churches to service the spiritual needs of 10,000 people. I expect that estimate is rather conservative. In any case Dubai doesn't have the mega-churches you'll find in Texas so four small churches to service 10,000 to 20,000 people isn't a lot. Why so few? Because you can't build a church within site of a mosque. At least that's the general rule but I don't know if that is the case in Dubai since I never saw a church. Read the article closely. Each church the author visited served as many as 48 different congregations. As she acknowledged, there isn't exactly freedom of religion in Dubai or the U.A.E...at least not any freedom we would recognize. What freedom there is wouldn't even match U.N. standards of human rights...and we all now how low that standard is.

I'm told things have changed since I was there and I must acknowledge that; but, based on the date of your article I would say they haven't changed that much.

Thanks for the links. I read the article. I hope you did. Its not exactly a ringing endorsement of religous freedom in the U.A.E. In any case, I was in Dubai.

There are other Christian churches in Dubai. I have visited there about a dozen times. We used to go to the expat Middle Eastern softball tournment twice a year hosted by the Hotel Chicago. It was a good break from Saudi, especially since you could drink alcohol in public. Dubai is a great place.

Someone else said there are four. I never saw one. But I imagine I just didn't look hard enough.

That sounds a little different from your initial statement, "The whole time I was there I never saw a church nor could I find a Bible in their book stores." There are churches in the UAE whether you personally saw them or not. How long were you there?

As she acknowledged, there isn't exactly freedom of religion in Dubai or the U.A.E...at least not any freedom we would recognize. What freedom there is wouldn't even match U.N. standards of human rights...and we all now how low that standard is.

You can practice your religion, but you can't proselytize. It may not be up to Texas standards, but it is infinitely better than Saudi Arabia. I wouldn't minimize what is going on in UAE re religious freedom. The author comes to a similar conclusion.

"So ultimately, after giving this some thought, my conclusion is as follows. The UAE's limited freedom is not ideal, but it is far more than other countries offer. And it is the responsibility of the UAE's guests (which we are) to act within their laws, and to respect the freedom that they have given us."

"There are other ways of convincing people to change their belief systems. But disobeying the law is certainly not going to impress many people."