#Dubai’s message to its people: be tolerant, or else | Financial Times

Dubai’s message to its people: be tolerant, or else | Financial Times:

Dubai has a limitless ability to reinvent itself. Having run out of branding wonders — think of Burj Khalifa or its man-made islands — the Gulf emirate has now latched on to catchy concepts. Drive through the city’s boulevards and you’ll see of billboards celebrating the “year of tolerance”; you might even spot “Tolerance Bridge”. Talk to residents and you will learn that school children are assigned tolerance projects and artists are encouraged to produce works.

The salutations run across the seven city states of United Arab Emirates, the federation that declared 2019 the year of tolerance. Guiding the initiative are a ministry of tolerance, a national tolerance programme and a national council for tolerance. This week a senior official encouraged everyone to record and tweet videos reciting a tolerance pledge.

Less than three months into 2019, Emiratis consider that tolerance has already triumphed. In February, Pope Francis made a historic visit to the UAE and praised its efforts at creating a model of religious coexistence.