The Constitution of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

provides for

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freed ...

by established customs, and the government generally respects this right in practice; however, there are some restrictions (e.g. attempts to spread Christianity among Muslims are not permitted). The federal Constitution declares that Islam is the official religion of the country; the Government does not recognize or permit conversion from Islam to another religion.International Religious Freedom Report 2008 https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108495.htm

Religious demography

The country has an area of 82,880 km² (30,000 sq. mi) and a resident population of 7.4 million (2010 est.). Only approximately 20% of residents are UAE citizens. According to the CIA World Fact Book, 76% of the citizens are Muslim, 9% are Christian, other (primarily Hindu and Buddhist, less than 5% of the population consists of Parsi, Baha'i, Druze, Sikh, Ahmadi, Ismaili, Dawoodi Bohra Muslim, and Jewish) 15%. It is one of the most liberal countries found in Middle East. Foreigners are predominantly from South and Southeast

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, although there are substantial numbers from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

, North America and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. According to a ministry report, which collected census data, 76 percent of the total population is Muslim, 9 percent is Christian, and 15 percent is other. Unofficial figures estimate that at least 15 percent of the population is

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 5 percent is

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, and 5 percent belong to other religious groups, while the large majority of noncitizens coming in and out of the country are non Muslims, accumulating over 70% of them are largely non Muslim.

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

, Baháʼí, and Sikh.

Religious discrimination

In recent years, a large number of

Shia Muslim Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

expatriates have been deported from the UAE, Lebanese Shia families in particular have been deported for their alleged sympathy for extremist group Hezbollah. According to some organizations, more than 4,000 Shia expats have been deported from the UAE in recent years. Chinese Uyghurs who relocated to the UAE after facing human rights abuse at the hands of the Beijing government were subjected to detention, torture, and deportation from Abu Dhabi. According to testimony shared by the wife of one of the detainees, China requested three major Arab countries, which included UAE, for the deportation of Uyghur migrants. The decision received major backlash and UAE authorities failed to respond when asked to comment on the deportation of Chinese Uyghurs despite not sharing an extradition agreement with China.

Apostasy

Apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

is a crime in the United Arab Emirates. In 1978, UAE began the process of Islamising the nation's law, after its council of ministers voted to appoint a High Committee to identify all its laws that conflicted with Sharia. Among the many changes that followed, UAE incorporated hudud crimes of Sharia into its Penal Code - apostasy being one of them. Article 1 and Article 66 of UAE's Penal Code required hudud crimes to be punished with the death penalty, however no executions for apostasy have ever taken place. By virtue of Federal Decree Law No. (15) of 2020, Articles 1 and 66 of UAE's Penal Code no longer incorporate hudud crimes.Federal Decree Law No. (15) of 2020 Concerning the Penal Code
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References

US department of state - background note: United Arab Emirates

International Religious Freedom Report 2007 - UAE * United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
United Arab Emirates: International Religious Freedom Report 2007
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public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

.'' {{Asia topic, Freedom of religion in

Human rights in the United Arab Emirates Religion in the United Arab Emirates

Religious demography

Religious discrimination

Apostasy

See also

References