In July 2015, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has signed and issued Federal Law No. 2 of 2015 otherwise known as Combating Discrimination and Hatred.
The law aims to shield and defend everyone in the United Arab Emirates against discrimination and hatred. It promotes firm pounded atmosphere of tolerance, co-existence, and acceptance amongst the residence of the country. It combats discrimination against individual or group based on religion, race, color, caste, and doctrine.
The law prohibits and punishes the following:
- Offending, showing contempt or irreverence toward the Divine Entity.
- Offending, insulting, challenging, defaming or disrespecting any religion or any of its rituals or scared things, or disrupting or preventing licensed religious observances or ceremonies by violence or threat.
- Distorting, destroying, desecrating or insulting, in any way, any of the holy books.
- Insulting, disrespecting, offending or defaming one of the messengers or their spouses, family or companion.
- Destroying, damaging, or desecrating the sanctity of places of worship, cemeteries or graves, appurtenances, or any of their contents.
- Any act of discrimination of any form by any means or expression.
- Any act of hate speech or by any other means.
- Any means of expression or other means, to instigate tribal division aiming to provoke hatred among individuals and groups.
- Any person who produces, manufactures, promotes, offers for sale, circulates, possesses, or acquires products, good, publications, recordings, movies, tapes, discs, software, smart applications or information in the field of electronic service or any other materials or other things involving the means of expression, which may incite to commit blasphemy, or provoke discrimination or hate speech.
- Any person, who establishes, set up, organizes or manages an association, center, entity, organization, league or group or any branch thereof, or uses any other means aiming to offend religions, or provoke discriminations or hate.
- Any person, who join, participates in or assists any of the parties in article 13 of the law.
- Any person, who holds or organizes a conference or a meeting in the state, intended to offend religions, or to provoke discrimination or hate speech.
- Any person, who provides, offers, demands, accepts, obtains, handover or receives fund or material support either directly or indirectly, with the aim to commit any of the acts punished under the provision of the present decree.