The culture of the United Arab Emirates has a diverse, cosmopolitan and multicultural society. The country's cultural imprint as a small, ethnically homogenous pearling community was changed with the arrival of other ethnic groups and nationals — first by the Iranians in the early 1900s, and later by Indians and Pakistanis in the 1960s. Dubai has been criticized for perpetuating a class-based society, where migrant workers are in the lower classes. Despite the diversity of the population, only minor and infrequent episodes of ethnic tensions, primarily between expatriates, have been reported in the city. Major holidays in Dubai include Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and National Day (2 December), which marks the formation of the United Arab Emirates.
Emirati culture mainly revolves around the religion of Islam, traditional Arab, and Bedouin culture. Being a highly cosmopolitan society, the UAE has a diverse and vibrant culture. The influence of Islamic and Arab culture on its architecture, music, attire, cuisine, and lifestyle are very prominent as well. Five times every day, Muslims are called to prayer from the minarets of mosques, which are scattered around the country. The weekend begins on Friday due to Friday being the holiest day for Muslims. Most Muslim countries have a Friday-Saturday or Thursday-Friday weekend.
This unique socioeconomic development in the Persian Gulf has meant that the UAE is generally more liberal than its neighbors. While Islam is the main religion, Emiratis have been known for their religious tolerance, and churches, Hindu temples, Sikh Gurdwara can be found alongside mosques. However, there are no Jewish synagogue in the United Arab Emirates. A cosmopolitan atmosphere is gradually growing. As a result there are a variety of foreign-influenced schools, cultural centers, and themed restaurants.
Read more about Culture Of The United Arab Emirates: Emirati People, Museums and Art Galleries, Architecture, Dress, Literature and Poetry, Music and Dance, Sports, Holidays, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words culture, united and/or arab:
“The anorexic prefigures this culture in rather a poetic fashion by trying to keep it at bay. He refuses lack. He says: I lack nothing, therefore I shall not eat. With the overweight person, it is the opposite: he refuses fullness, repletion. He says, I lack everything, so I will eat anything at all. The anorexic staves off lack by emptiness, the overweight person staves off fullness by excess. Both are homeopathic final solutions, solutions by extermination.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“I saw the Arab map.
It resembled a mare shuffling on,
dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)