YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. The National published an article about a book titled “Celebrating Tolerance: Religious Diversity in the United Arab Emirates” which touches upon ten diverse faiths of the United Arab Emirates.

It charts the experiences of ten different faiths, including Hindu, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sikh, Jewish, Baha'i and Christian, who have come to work, live and coexist peacefully. It also examines some of the rituals involved in each faith.

The article says many came here decades ago and the Christian Armenian community is one. 

“By 1950, as the first oil exploration camps were established in what was then the Trucial States, a handful of Armenians came as engineers, car mechanics and tradesmen to support the burgeoning energy industry”, the article says. “By the 1970s, this handful had turned into a wave because of Lebanon’s civil war and the Iranian revolution that prompted Armenians leaving these countries for the Emirates. The first Armenian mass took place in 1977, the first church was built in Sharjah in 1996 and the Armenians were officially recognized as a community. Today, Armenians here number in the thousands”.