Middle East’s first Mormon Temple to be built in Dubai
Followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) will soon have a place of worship in Dubai. This recently announced Mormon temple in Dubai will be built on the Expo 2020 legacy site and will be the first of its kind in the Middle East.
Announcing the plan for a Mormon place of worship in Dubai and referring to the Emirati Authorities, Russell Nelson, president of the church said,
“The plan for a temple in Dubai comes in response to their gracious invitation, which we gratefully acknowledge.”
THE NEW MORMON TEMPLE IN DUBAI
Dubai is one of the eight cities in the world where new Mormon temples will be constructed. Currently, there are 162 of them across the globe, with the Mormon Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The new temple in Dubai will be in addition to the LDS church in Abu Dhabi. While both the church and the temple serve as place of worship for the LDS followers, a temple takes precedence over the church with its overall purpose. It is where baptisms, marriages and other significant religious events take place.
Most Mormon temples in the world are characterised by the statue of angel Moroni – a man with flowing robes and a trumpet held to his lips. Joseph Smith (founder of the LDS religion) claimed that it was angel Moroni who guided him to the golden plates that helped him write the Book of Mormon.
According to the Mormon tradition, after this temple in Dubai is completed, it may hold an “open house,” allowing everyone to visit. However, once it is “dedicated” it will only be open to members of the faith.
WHY HAVE A TEMPLE OF THE MORMON CHURCH IN DUBAI?
Dubai is home to a diverse, multicultural population that follows various faiths. Besides mosques, temples and gurdwaras, there are churches in Dubai that serve as communal spaces for the Christian community and its different denominations.
The presence of a Mormon temple in Dubai will serve as a significant place of worship for the LDS population in the region. This being the first Mormon temple in the Middle East has brought considerable joy to the small, but dedicated Latter-day Saints congregation in Dubai and the rest of the UAE.
The new Mormon church in Dubai will be an addition to the rich diversity of denominations and religions in the UAE.
WHO ARE MORMONS?
Followers of the faith consider their Mormon Latter-Day Saints church to be a reinstatement of the church originally established by Jesus Christ. The Mormons or the Latter-day Saints, as they prefer to be called, are believers of the Bible but they do not consider it to be absolute.
According to the LDS belief, the Bible is supplemented by other scriptures and books, like the Book of Mormon that they follow. They also believe that God continues to communicate to the people via living prophets.
These people are characterised by strong family values, extensive missionary work and the practice of tithing (giving 10% of their income to the Mormon church).
HOW MANY MORMONS ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?
Initially, it took more than a century for the LDS faith to grow from a humble group of six believers to a 1 million-member strong congregation. However, from 1947 onwards the faith saw a steady rise in the number of adherents, which stands at over 16 million followers today.
There are over 9 million Mormons living in North America and 4 million in South America. Asia is home to 1.2 million LDS adherents, while Europe has almost 500,000 of them.
There are around 1,631 people of the Mormon faith in the multicultural Dubai and the UAE, 223 in Bahrain and 346 in Kuwait.
THE UAE AND ITS EFFORTS FOR RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL COEXISTENCE
The UAE has long been the pallbearer for religious and cultural harmony. As exemplified by one of the most well-known H.H (the late) Sheikh Zayed sayings:
“To treat every person, no matter what his creed or race, as a special soul, is a mark of Islam”
He was a visionary leader who saw the significance of tolerance and coexistence, and left no stone unturned to instil these values in the governance of the country and its people. Since then, there has been no turning back for the UAE.
Talking about the church of LDS getting the opportunity to build a Mormon temple in Dubai, the MoFAIC’s director of strategic communications, Hend Al Otaiba said,
“UAE is proud to welcome the Latter-day Saints community to worship together with the future construction of a temple in Dubai…The temple will be the Church’s first in Middle East, symbolising the spirit of interfaith tolerance and unity upon which the UAE was founded.”
Elder Anthony D Perkins, president of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Middle East and North Africa division lauded the UAE’s open-minded approach to inter-faith harmony and acceptance of the Mormon community. He said,
“We are grateful to the leaders and people of the United Arab Emirates…They have been kind, gracious and welcoming to us and to people of all faith traditions.”
This is not the first time something so religiously and culturally significant has happened in the UAE. In the Year of Tolerance 2019, Pope Francis visited the country. This historic event led to the decision to build the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi.
The project will consist of a church, a mosque and a synagogue, each of which open to a central garden with a museum in it. The Family House will be a representation of the ties that bind the religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism together. The church in the Abrahamic Family House will be an addition to the already existing churches in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE is home to over 200 different nationalities. Being one of the most culturally and religiously diverse countries in the world, acceptance and tolerance have become the foundation stones of its progress.
Diversity being its most important strength, the UAE’s nation brand logo represents it with the colour white, alternating the seven pillars as the force that binds the country together.
