Pope Francis is going to the Arabian peninsula. The announcement from the press office of the Holy See attracted significant attention, but the news did not dominate headlines, or garner the kind of polemical attention other trips by Pope Francis have generated (Cuba, with the tête-à-tête with Patriarch Kirill, set a high bar for newsworthiness). Nevertheless, the three-day visit to the city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on February 3-5 is truly historic: the first time a pope – any pope – will set foot on the peninsula.