Policy decisions taken by the UAE can sometimes surprise even our closest allies. This was the point made over the weekend by a US television reporter as he interviewed Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE’s foreign minister. Referring to a list published by the UAE 10 days ago, which named 83 organisations as terror groups, Bret Baier, a journalist with the right-wing channel Fox News, suggested two of them had “raised some eyebrows in Washington”. Both of the groups Mr Baier mentioned are US-based.
Sheikh Abdullah responded with candour. “Our threshold is quite low when you talk about extremism. We cannot accept incitement or funding when we look at some of these organisations,” he said, making a distinction between terror groups that “carry a weapon and terrorise people” and others. The UAE, he said, “cannot tolerate even the smallest and tiniest amount of terrorism”.
Sheikh Abdullah’s words are key to understanding the specific nature of extremism and counterterrorism in the UAE. For all its wealth, status and high profile, the UAE is a small country in a volatile region. Moreover it is one that hosts a large number of expatriates, many of them from countries with very different cultures, religions and societies. It has to balance all of this with the particularities of its own political climate, which places a premium on stability and peaceful, managed change.
This is why formulating policy is a tricky balancing act. Tip too far one way and many of the gains might be compromised. Go too far down the other road and the direction of travel may have changed beyond recognition for Emiratis and all who call this country home, even if only for a limited period.
Any suggestion of an organised attempt to change the trajectory of the country is looked upon badly, as the case against members of Al Islah last year showed.
The ban on 83 groups makes sense in this context though such decisions are not always easy to understand. But they are important for the UAE’s stability and society – and that must be the first consideration and the first test of the UAE’s policy.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The years Ramadan fell in May
EXPATS
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Asia Cup Qualifier
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Result: Winners play at Asia Cup in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29: Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30: UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6: Final
Asia Cup
Venue: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Schedule: Sep 15-28
Teams: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, plus the winner of the Qualifier
LOVE%20AGAIN
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
