Al Bayan is reporting that under UAE Health Policy circumcision is free to people [men?] who convert to Islam.This is a generous gesture even if I wince at the prospect! Such painful surgery is enough to sort out the men from the boys and test the genuineness of a person’s motives.
Circumcision is the badge worn by followers of Islam and is a permanent one, if not always visible for all to see.
Is it ever likely that UAE law would cover the cost of initiatory rites into other religions?
But here, in flesh and blood (ouch!!), is an act sanctioned by the UAE that allows and actively encourages the conversion of people from other religions to Islam.
Tolerance and religious freedom in the United Arab Emirates will become fully evident when the government and its people allows and actively encourages citizens of the Emirates to convert from Islam and put on the badge of another religion.
Source: Social security in Abu Dhabi to Cover Cost of Circumcising Men who Convert to Islam, Middle East Online, 9 February 2009.
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: Every year hundreds convert to Islam in the UAE.
