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| Arabia |
| US missionaries released in Dubai |
| 2005-03-22 |
| via DhimmiWatch Two US missionaries detained in Dubai on suspicion of distributing Christian compact discs and Bibles in the Muslim Gulf emirate have returned to the United States, a local newspaper said. A US embassy official confirmed the report but declined to give details, citing the US privacy act. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, forbids proselytising by non-Muslims. The daily quoted a Dubai Justice Department official as saying the case against the two women had been dismissed but that the public prosecution department kept the 26 CDs and 19 Bibles confiscated when the women were arrested last month. The women, on a missionary trip with the Tom Cox Evangelistic Association, were detained in February and then freed on bail but had not been charged. Tom Cox Evangelistic Association said on its Web site that the two women, identified as Marie Bush and Vivian Gilmer, returned home on March 4 and were in "excellent" spirits. In 1993 a UAE court sentenced a British man to six months in prison for handing out Christian literature to Iranians. Dubai, unlike other places in the Gulf which follow Islamic law to the letter, tries to cater to differing cultures and religions and has both churches and mosques. |
| Posted by:ed |