Easter was widely celebrated across Abu Dhabi last weekend, with some 25,000 Christians gathering at the city’s church compound. Among them were several NYUAD students, professors and staff.

“I was glad that although we had class on Easter… I was able to find time to go to mass,” said freshman Tamy Sanchez. “It was impacting to see so many people at the sermon, and people of all different backgrounds. It was particularly nice to have run into some of the NYUAD staff at church.”

This year, there was such a large turn out that the services were conducted outside in the courtyard as there was not enough room inside the churches for everyone. Twenty services were conducted throughout the entire day on Sunday in 12 different languages in order to cater to the diverse Abu Dhabi community.

As dusk fell, the crowds became more dense and the services more frequent. The street in front of the compound overflowed with people and taxis, spilling over into nearby neighborhoods, as worshippers made their way to and from the services.

“It was very full,” sophomore Andres Fernandez said. “I have never seen so many people in St. Joseph. I would guess that during Christmas it gets equally as full, but it was packed. It took at least 10 minutes to be able to leave the compound due to the number of people.”

The church compound, standing on land granted by His Highness Sheikh Shakbut, the ruler of Abu Dhabi at the time. The church area was established in 1962 and contains separate parishes for six different Christian denominations: Catholic, Anglican, Evangelical, Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox. Each has its own separate church on the grounds and operates independently from one another.

Islam is the official religion of the UAE and a dual system of Shari’a law as well as secular law is followed in the courts. Reportedly, all of the Emirati population is Muslim, 85 percent being Sunni and 15 percent Shi’a, but the foreign population is religiously diversified. The expatriate community, which makes up a majority in the UAE, is estimated to be 55 percent Muslim, 25 percent Hindu, 10 percent Christian, five percent Buddhist and five percent other.

Tolerance and freedom to practice is granted, to an extent, to these other religions. In particular, there is a well-established relationship with the Christian community in the country.

Gandolf Wild, a Swiss priest who has been serving at Saint Joseph Church in Abu Dhabi for the past five years, described the line between what is tolerated and what is not. For example, preaching publicly or distributing religious literature outside the compound is illegal. Attempting to convert someone, especially a Muslim, to Christianity is strictly prohibited and a punishable offense. For this reason, according to Wild, there are no Emirati Christians in any of the congregations in the UAE.

“If you are an Emirati, you are by law a Muslim and you cannot even become a Christian,” Wild said. “We never accept anybody who comes to ask to convert, we don’t even consider [it]. If somebody comes to ask for a bible, we don’t give [them] a bible.”

Wild explained that there have been requests that he has had to deny in the past.

“Very often, you don’t know if it is serious or it is a trap,” he said. “If it was a spy who came, we would be expelled from the country. And if it was a serious matter of trying to convert, the church might be closed down … You have to be careful.”

“On the other hand,” Wild continued, “we have complete freedom of what we do here [in the compound]. There are no restrictions.”

Wild has not encountered any difficulties in being a priest in the Emirates. He compared it favorably to his experiences in both his home country of Switzerland and to other places he has worked. “[I feel] very comfortable here.” he said. “First of all, the security in this country is wonderful. The respect for religion, I mean, I can go like this in the street," he pointed to his white robe. "We go to the hospitals to visit the sick, to anoint the sick … there is never a problem.”

However, not all religions are as accepted as Christianity. There are a few Hindu temples in the Emirates, but official permission must be obtained every time they are used. There are no Buddhist temples in the country and nor are there any synagogues. Nonetheless, freedom of religious practice is allowed in the privacy of one’s home without governmental interference.

Sophomore Benjamin Leb, President of Shorashim, the Hebrew Language and Jewish Culture SIG, described the challenges in determining exactly where the religious boundaries exist.

“There is not a very good roadmap,” Leb said. “When you have Christianity in the UAE, it’s legitimized in the sense that there’s a centre [Church Complex]. They have an idea of what they can and can’t do. There are no rabbis in the UAE, that’s just not something that’s allowed. There is no building for Judaism. So it’s very unclear what is and what is not okay.”

This issue is one that was particularly relevant when Shorashim first started hosting events.

“All of our events needed to stress the educational value in order to establish that they were educational and not ritual events,” Leb said.

Despite the challenges, Leb acknowledged the support from NYUAD’s administration and the Spiritual Life Resource Centre.

“That’s the really stark distinction; within the university I think we operate almost entirely as we would in New York,” Leb said. “We receive as much support here as we would anywhere else.”