Brief Introduction to the United Arab Emirates

The UAE is located on the south-eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula. It shares land borders with Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

There are 7 emirates (similar to States in the United States) in the UAE – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain, Ras Al-Khaimah and Fujairah. They united together as one country on December 2, 1971 with Abu Dhabi as the capital city of the new nation.

Today, the land itself is mostly a desert with a few oases with one mountain range running through the country. The discovery of oil has transformed the country and brought great wealth that has been used to build modern cities across the country.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is the father of the nation. He realized the possibilities that the discovery of oil would bring and he worked with the sheikhs (leaders) of the other emirates to form a united country based on a federal system of government.

Today, people from more than 200 different nationalities live and work in the UAE. The leaders also encourage tolerance. There are a few spaces of land that have been provided across the country for religious buildings and centers of other faiths to be built.

Praise God that people across the UAE have access to churches. For some, they do have to travel about 1 hour to reach a church meeting place. Pray for more churches to be formed in neighborhoods across the country so that every person has easy access to hear the gospel and be discipled.