Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The biggest Hindu temple in the UAE is almost complete, and will be ready to receive visitors soon according to Sawab Center, which is the country’s digital communications hub to combat extremist ideologies online.

The temple will be based in Abu Dhabi, and its construction was approved by the emirate’s government in 2015 during India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to the country.

“We are extremely grateful to the UAE government because they have not only been supporting us but also guiding this entire project,” Sadhu Brahma Viharidas, who is in charge of the Middle East at BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha place of worship that will build and manage the temple, told Gulf News.

According to the newspaper, the temple with seven towers representing the seven emirates in the UAE will come up on a 14-acre piece of land at Abu Mureikhah in Al Rahba area on the Abu Dhabi-Sweihan-Al Ain Road, close to the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway.

The Abu Dhabi government stated that the building of the temple was done to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Hindus residing in Abu Dhabi, and to avoid worshipers having to travel far to the nearest temple, which is in Dubai.

The temple’s coordination committee headed by Indian businessman B. R. Shetty handled the private financing of the project.

“The UAE is a fine example of religious tolerance and acceptance in a nation with people of different nationalities living in harmony,” Shetty said.

In 1958, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum granted permission to build the first Hindu temple in Dubai.

*Al Arabiya