DUBAI (AFP) — Several mainly Western expatriates sit down for lunch at a popular cafe in a well-heeled Dubai district. An unremarkable scene for the cosmopolitan free-wheeling Gulf emirate -- except the diners entered by a back door.
Their low-key arrival is one example of the restrictions observed by thousands of Dubai's non-Muslim residents during Ramadan, when Muslims have to abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and dusk.
As well as being discouraged from eating and drinking in public during Ramadan, everyone -- regardless of faith -- is urged to act and dress modestly out of respect for the holy month and the native Muslim population.
But given the amount of tanned flesh on display at many of Dubai's outlandish shopping malls and chic bars, this call for propriety fails to resonate with some residents and visitors to a city-state aiming to become a global business and leisure hub.
Linda Mirdad, an Irish-born Muslim convert who has lived in Dubai for 10 years, told AFP that the relatively liberal nature of the emirate made some people forget about or disregard its Islamic foundations.
"Expatriates living in Dubai could show a little bit more respect for Islam during Ramadan. We do have a lot of freedom here, so I would ask people not to abuse it," she said.
English-language radio stations broadcast public announcements during the holy month urging people to keep the volume down on their car stereos and to act with decorum in a city which for many is the hedonistic party capital of the Middle East.
Help is on hand for anyone unfamiliar with the norms and practices of Ramadan and Islam as a whole.
The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was established a decade ago to raise awareness of and understanding between the estimated 150 nationalities living in the emirate.
The non-profit group, named after Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, organises regular activities during Ramadan, with one of the most popular being a guided tour of a mosque.
AFP joined a group of some 40 people from around the world one blazing hot September morning on a tour led by Mohammed Raisi, a good-humoured volunteer with a short, neatly trimmed beard and wearing a traditional gleaming white robe and headdress.
The group was introduced to the basic tenets of the Islamic faith, including Ramadan with its goals of self-discipline, quiet reflection and empathy with the less fortunate.
At the end of the tour, Raisi urged participants to respect the sensibilities of the people fasting during Ramadan by dressing more conservatively and refraining from showing affection to one another in public.
"We just want everyone to learn to respect each other," Latifa Flook, the mosque tour supervisor, said.
"This tour opens the minds of the people who take part," the British-born Muslim convert added in an unmistakable London accent.
While some of the emirate's non-Muslim residents might feel inconvenienced during the month of Ramadan, others are quick to point out its advantages.
"It's great. I get to leave work much earlier," one British expatriate who declined to be named told AFP. He was referring to the five-hour day his company introduced for all of its employees during Ramadan, whether they were fasting or not.
Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates bordering Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam.
Foreigners comprise a majority of the 1.3-million population of Dubai, as in the rest of the oil-rich Gulf federation in which Emiratis accounted for just 21.9 percent of 4.1 million residents at the end of 2005, according to official figures.
Most of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims started the fast of Ramadan on September 13. The beginning of the holiest month in the Muslim calendar is traditionally determined by the sighting of a new crescent moon.
The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al-Fitr, which in Arabic means the festival of the breaking of the fast.
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