From The Guardian (UK)
by Nesrine Malik
If you thought Dubai was only a playground for secular capitalism, then last week the Dubai general projects department proved you wrong. The latest theme to get the Dubai treatment is not an Angry Birds theme park, or the world’s largest Ferris wheel, but the holy Qur’an.
In this most recent episode in its litany of excess, Dubai is planning a Qur’an theme park. It appears that in order to combat its irreligious public image, the Dubai planning authorities have resorted to a typical manoeuvre. Spend loads of money, build a spectacle, and make it big.
Dubai, although fundamentally a conservative place, has done as much as it can to distance itself from religion (apart from when public order is seen to be assailed) and has generally gone about building a secular emirate that welcomes western tourism. It is also accommodating of its diverse expat population, south Asian labourers, western bankers, Arab middle men, Gulf billionaires; all are welcome, tied by the shared bond of a tax-free salary. Of course there are inevitable tensions, but the emirate is like a bizarrely themed bar where everyone drinks in harmony, before fighting breaks out at the end of the night, and the whole process is repeated the next day.
This reputation has started to alienate regional tourists from the Arab Muslim world. Recently, a controversial Saudi preacher ordered Saudi women not to visit Dubai (obviously Saudi men are incorruptible) due to the city’s licentiousness. This latest theme park can therefore be seen as a move to appease regional tourists and plug a gap in the market that would enable Dubai to have 20 million visitors a year.
This latest offering to the pantheon of extravaganza is to be called “Holy Qur’an Park”. The general projects department at the Dubai municipality announced that the park had been designed “from an Islamic perspective to introduce the miracles of Qur’an through a variety of surprises for the visitors”. Designs include an outdoor theatre, fountains, a lake, walking and biking tracks, a children’s play area, Umrah corner and “areas for showing the miracles of the Qur’an.”
