Many western universities also are in bed with the most backward of Arab countries: The United Arab Emirates. The UAE thinks that with its dirty oil money it can buy anything and anyone. The West, which used to vocally express its racism to the Arabs, is now kissing the oily behinds of the decadent Emirs for their money.
Despite their superficial openness and tolerance, the UAE is deeply Islamic and it merely "tolerates" all these foreigners who work there. It won't be long before the Emiratis start deporting and chasing all their foreign working force out of the country, once they no longer need them. Incidentally, I found out yesterday from visiting friends who live and work in Dubai that their children (6 and 8 years old) attend a Lycée Franco-Libanais in Dubai, where they follow the same trilingual - Arabic, French and English - curriculum as in Lebanon. The older child volunteered to sing to me the national anthem the children are forced to sing every morning in their school (owned and run by non-Emirati expatriates), and it was the Emirati national anthem full of references to "our Islam" and "our Qur'aan". The children and not Muslims! This is how "developed" and "tolerant" the Emiratis are. Behind the glitter of their disgustingly hot desert cities still lies the intolerant Muslim fanaticism of the most rundown of Muslim countries like Afghanistan.
There are no freedoms in the UAE: No press freedoms, no freedoms of opinion and expression, no political parties, no syndicates, migrant workers - in construction and in the maid business - are treated like cattle. Other than the filthy wealthy elites that do their best to imitate the West, the average Emiratis just engorge themselves on stupid American movies and food as they see their culture degrade to a very poor imitation of western culture serving as a varnish for the deeply embedded Islamic backwardness. The UAE are in fact a modern colony of western capitalism. They used to be colonies of the English crooks, and now they are colonies of an unsavory hybrid English-American empire.
They also have an Israeli embassy, and as required by their colonial masters, they are cracking down on any expression of sympathy for the Palestinian people anf the theft of their land by colonial settler Zionists. This does not seem to conflict with their funding of Sunni radical movements across the globe and thus assisting in the transfer of Islamist terrorism to the rest of the world. Where do you think did the money come that funded the thousands of mosques and their radical imams in western countries over the past 4 decades?
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Arabs, including the Emirates, furnished Yasser Arafat with money, weapons and mercenaries to fight the Christians of Lebanon and turn the country into a cesspool of Sunni radicalism. They seem to have now given up on liberating Palestine and have abandoned the Palestinians to their own fate.
One thing is for certain, all the money and glitter in the world will not make Gulf Arabs any more civilized than they are. The facade of huge shiny skyscrappers could easily crumble the moment someone challenges the hypocrisy of these Arab asskissers of Americans and Britons. I think the Americans should accept some reciprocity and allow the Emiratis to open an Arab Islamic University in Manhattan or in Dallas. But would they?
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University student who yelled 'Free Palestine' reportedly deported as UAE weighs Israel-Hamas war
MALAK HARB
Wed, July 10, 2024
FILE - A man wearing a keffiyeh looks at the U.S. Capitol during a pro-Palestinian rally, on May 18, 2024, on the National Mall in Washington. At the graduation ceremony of New York University Abu Dhabi in May, 2024, a student wearing the traditional Palestinian black-and-white keffiyeh scarf shouted “Free Palestine!” as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma, witnesses say. Days later, he reportedly was deported from the United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — At the graduation ceremony of New York University Abu Dhabi this May, a student wearing the traditional Palestinian black-and-white keffiyeh scarf shouted “Free Palestine!” as he crossed the stage to receive his diploma, witnesses say. Days later, he reportedly was deported from the United Arab Emirates.
The incident at the graduation comes as the UAE tries to balance its diplomatic recognition of Israel with the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that's devastated the Gaza Strip. While offering aid to the Palestinians, there have been none of the mass demonstrations that swept the Arab world here in the UAE, a federation of seven emirates that tightly controls speech and where political parties are illegal.
That's stretched into academic life at NYU Abu Dhabi, where students say activities over the war have been barred, and into cultural events in the country's capital as well where those wearing the keffiyeh have been stopped from entering.
“I think the government and the laws of the country don’t necessarily align with wanting to create an environment that appeals to the West as well, if we’re talking about freedom of speech and so on," said one student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Responding to questions from The Associated Press, NYU Abu Dhabi said it has been “guaranteed academic authority” on campus but that “in none of our locations ... are members of the NYU community immune from local law.”
“NYU has no authority over any nation’s immigration or law enforcement actions or decisions,” the school said. It added it advised students “clearly and repeatedly about expectations, obligations, and boundaries, including the protocols for the NYU Abu Dhabi graduation.”
The Emirati government did not respond to a request for comment.
Before the graduation ceremony, students had been told that “displaying the Palestinian flag anywhere on campus is not permitted and this was strictly executed, even in residential buildings,” said another student, who similarly spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In total, five students speaking on condition of anonymity described similar circumstances leading up to the graduation affecting those who earlier sought to bulk-buy keffiyehs as a fundraiser and organize vigils for the dead in Gaza.
Jacqueline Hennecke, an NYU Abu Dhabi alumni who graduated in May, told the AP that the university sent an email prior to graduation banning all “cultural attire” at the commencement — including scarves. The student who disregarded the order and yelled “Free Palestine!” on stage ultimately found himself in police custody prior to his deportation, according to the American Association of University Professors which supports free speech and academic freedom efforts.
The university “has been unable to protect students, staff and faculty from being taken into custody and interrogated at government security offices and has failed to prevent the deportation of one academic staff member and a graduate student,” a statement from the organization alleged. It also claimed that staff and students from non-Western countries had been “detained, intimidated, and deported based on surveillance.” It did not elaborate.
This is not the first time NYU Abu Dhabi has faced criticism when trying to balance the ideas of an American liberal arts education in the UAE, which has strict rules governing speech despite being a staunch American ally in the Mideast. Human rights groups criticized the school for using migrant workers to build the campus who they say had been subject to a range of violations including being forced to pay recruitment fees to get their jobs that were never reimbursed, living in overcrowded conditions and being forced to work overtime.
Following the report, NYU commissioned an investigation, which found a number of workers hadn’t been protected by the fair labor practices the school had said would be in place. The school promised reimbursement, though some workers later claimed they never received it.
The journalism department at New York University in 2017 told the school it was cutting its ties to NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus over two professors being denied work visas by the UAE, as well as the school’s handling of the situation.
But NYU Abu Dhabi's actions come as the UAE maintains its diplomatic ties with Israel, which runs both a consulate in Dubai and an embassy out of Abu Dhabi. Daily flights to Israel have also gone on even as Western airlines were slow to resume flights to Ben Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv. Security officials closely monitored pro-Palestinian demonstrations when Dubai hosted the U.N. COP28 climate talks in November, which the UAE had to allow in the U.N.-controlled “Blue Zone” at the event.
The war began Oct. 7 with Hamas' attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. The Israeli offensive has killed over 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza, local health officials say, without delineating between civilians and combatants. Hundreds more have been killed in Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.
But anger has boiled among the many Arabs living in the UAE, including Emiratis and other nationalities living there, as the war has raged on.
At the recent Abu Dhabi Comedy Festival, an AP journalist saw security guards stop people from entering the event unless they removed their keffiyehs and handed them over. However, one woman shouted “Free Palestine!” during a set by American comedian Dave Chapelle, who called what was happening in Gaza a “genocide.”
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