Reconfiguring Religious Globalization in a Muslim-Majority Context: The Variegated Landscape of Chinese Religions in Dubai

This study explores the divergent patterns of religious globalization in the Muslim-majority context of Dubai, UAE with a focus on the growing presence of immigrant Chinese religious communities. Dubai, a major global hub, provides a compelling case study of immigrant religions in a highly regulated yet cosmopolitan setting. Unlike many other Muslim-majority nations, the UAE promotes a policy of religious tolerance, positioning itself as a center of moderate Islam while maintaining strict state control over religious expression in public. This approach reflects neoliberal multiculturalism (Ong, 2006), where religious diversity is accommodated selectively, primarily serving economic and geopolitical agenda. As a result of shifting state priorities, religious groups perceived as non-threatening to the state-approved orthodox find a relatively favorable environment to practice their faith.

Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines how immigrant Chinese religious organizations—Christians, Buddhists, Folk religions, and Muslims—navigate the UAE’s religious regulatory framework, integrate into local institutions, and adapt their practices within a structured yet fluid religious landscape. We illustrate three types of religious globalization in the context of regulated religious cosmopolitanism, namely the transnational congregation of Chinese Christianity, the rooted ethnic religion of Chinese Islam, and the diffused chamber-based Chinese Buddhism. Each type has evolved distinctively to adapt to the changing political economy of the host society. By portraying the variegated landscape of Chinese religions in Dubai, we seek to shed light on the politics of religious diversity in this Muslim-majority context and contrast the UAE’s model of state-managed pluralism with other religious governance models, including the U.S. free-market approach (Finke & Stark, 2005), China’s state-controlled “three-color religious market” (Yang, 2006), and the French principle of laïcité, which seeks to minimize religious influence in public life. Unlike these models, the UAE constructs a controlled but accommodating religious sphere, likening itself to historic Cordoba, where religious coexistence is promoted as part of a broader strategy to enhance its global image and economic competitiveness.