From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:
DUBAI: 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.
Double standard watch: imagine for a moment the international outcry that would ensue if Britain, or France, or the United States for that matter, forbade proselytising by non-Christians. Yet the chattering classes persist in retailing moral equivalence and all-religions-are-equally-capable-of-inspiring-violence arguments, despite the fact that anyone who looks at the world with an objective eye for five minutes can see that they aren’t true.
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….
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.
That last sentence is odd. Are they “catering” to different cultures by releasing these women instead of executing them? Gee, thanks.