Legal authorities in the UAE have issued a warning that penalties will be imposed for crimes that include communal hatred and discrimination. The State Public Population through a tweet posted on social media clarified the crime of defamation of religion.
The prosecution described that under Article 4 of Federal Decree-law No. 2 of 2015 on combating discrimination and hatred, whoever commits any of the acts mentioned below, will be considered as an offender for the offence of blasphemy (a religious crime):
- Offending or showing disrespect toward the Divine Entity (of any religion)
- Offending, insulting, challenging, defaming or disrespecting any religion or any of its rituals or sacred things, or disrupting or preventing licensed religious observances or ceremonies by violence or threat.
- Distorting, destroying, desecrating or insulting in any way any of the holy books. Insulting, disrespecting, offending or defaming one of the messengers or their spouses, family or companions.
- Destroying, damaging or desecrating the sanctity of places of worship, cemeteries or graves, appurtenances or any of their contents.
UAE guarantees protection to people of all faiths and accordingly prescribes punishments for acts of religious hatred, as there is a huge part of UAE’s population comprising expatriates.
Article 5 of the act says that whoever commits any of the acts mentioned in article 4 shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than seven years to ten years and fine no less than Dhs 500,000 and not more than Dhs 2 million under the decree issued by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The tweet was posted to improve the culture among the society members to raise public awareness of laws that are responsible for reducing the rate of violations resulting from ignorance of laws.
The law applies to any form of discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, religion or caste. It also criminalizes any act that incites religious hatred or insults religion, either verbally or in print or online. Any person who calls others ‘infidels’ or unbelievers can be punished under the law.
The law is intended to provide a sound foundation for the environment of tolerance, broad-mindedness and acceptance in the UAE and aims to safeguard people, regardless of their origin, beliefs or race, against acts that promote religious hate and intolerance.
Any person, even if he is outside the UAE, will be prosecuted under the purview of the law, as he incites sectarianism, and accordingly commits crimes inside the UAE. Though such groups who spread hatred about other religions rarely exist in the UAE, the law has been established to silence such practices, even minor, in social networking websites and TV channels that people watch and browse without realizing the components of the society.
The UAE’s willingness to enforce the law is a civilized and advanced step of a state that realizes its responsibility towards its citizens and expatriates living in its land and looks forward to preserving their rights and dignity.
It also asserts the government belief in criminalizing Takfir and extremism of different kinds, and encourages peaceful co-existence with different religions, thus giving one the freedom of thinking and belief, and explains that each and every person in the society has the freedom to follow the sect and the faith but within the parameters of the law.
With this new law, the UAE has demonstrated to the international community their beliefs and enhanced the confidence of multi-ethnic communities to establish the UAE as an international centre.
