FAQs - about Dubai, the UAE and the Middle East – Part 1

1: Is Dubai a city or a country?
2: Is Dubai part of Saudi Arabia?
3: How come they have not apologized for 9-11?
4: How much of all this construction is from our tax dollars?
5: Shouldn’t the UAE be more public in condemning Osama Bin Laden?
6: Is Dubai anti-Israel and anti Jewish? How would a Jewish person be treated there?
7: If third world places like Dubai do better economically, won’t they take our jobs?
8: If Islam doesn’t advocate terrorism as your article claims, how come Muslims don’t condemn terrorists?
9: Do you really think all this will work? How will they get the construction expertise to do such advanced building?
10: Aren’t you concerned about the continued rise of Islamic fundamentalism and that this will just be a temporary phase until the Taliban or someone takes over?
 
 
1:Is Dubai a city or a country?
 
Dubai is the name of an Emirate or state within the United Arab Emirates or UAE. The UAE is its own country. Dubai is also the name of the major city in the state of Dubai, sometimes called Dubai City, Dubai. Kind of like Kansas City, Kansas only different.
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2:Is Dubai part of Saudi Arabia?
 
No, Dubai is not part of Saudi Arabia. Saudi is a neighboring country to the UAE. The UAE is its own country, a sovereign nation.
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3:How come they have not apologized for 9-11?
 
The UAE had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11, so no, they should not apologize. Just as Christians in Nebraska should not need to apologize for Slobodan Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing or Lutherans in Oregon should not need to apologize for Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess.
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4:How much of all this construction is from our tax dollars?
 
Again, wrong country. This is not the rebuilding of Iraq that you might be referring to; this is a totally and completely separate place. Dubai and the UAE have a lot of money and they also have foreign investment from Saudi Arabia who is also wealthy and from China and other areas. By the way, a lot of money flowing into this region is a result of people pulling money out of the US after 9-11. From some questions I get, the perception still remains that this is a poor nation. It is not.
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5:Shouldn’t the UAE be more public in condemning Osama Bin Laden?
 
First of all, why do you say so? Second of all, they have been.
They have been very public in condemning Bin Laden and terrorism. Certainly they have been even more public about this than other nations who also had no ties with Bin Laden. If there is an expectation that the UAE somehow owes us more because they are in the Middle East, this may not be fair.

Just for the record, Bin Laden was in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is considered part of South Asia (not the Middle East) by many and is definitely not part of the Gulf region. Afghanistan is not really that close to the UAE. To get to Afghanistan from the UAE one would have to cross through Saudi Arabia, past Bahrain and Qatar, past Kuwait then around through Iraq, which is a large country and then through Iran which is even larger. Alternatively, one could get on a boat from the UAE and cross over the Arabian Sea then through either Iran or Pakistan to get to Afghanistan.

Because both the UAE and Afghanistan are far away and different from us some in the US tend to lump them together. They are extremely different places. Remember: Barbados, Atlanta, Miami, Belize and Cuba are all somewhat close by, as are Lithuania, Finland, Germany and Sweden. It is unreasonable to judge a country by our perception of how close it may be to another country.
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6:Is Dubai anti-Israel and anti Jewish? How would a Jewish person be treated there?
 
General Tommy Franks has said that the UAE is the best chance for resolution of the Israeli and Palestine issues. He knows better than I do. From what I saw, the focus in Dubai is not on hating others but on building something great. Honestly I don’t think the leaders of Dubai spend much of their time on negatives, they tend to focus on positives and that trickles down to every citizen and resident. The focus is on building not on conflict. People with Israeli stamps on their passport are admitted to the UAE unlike some other nations. I think Jewish people, like any other group will be treated depending on what specific person they interact with and just as Arab people will be treated in a range of ways if they go to Israel or New York.

Beyond this I am not qualified to answer your question but am interested in any opinions anyone can provide.

Update: My friend has emailed me with this note:

The UAE does not treat any person of any religion differently. I have known a few American/European Jewish Engineers in Abu Dhabi. Many Israeli businessmen came to the country in the wake of the IMF meeting a few years back.

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7:If third world places like Dubai do better economically, won’t they take our jobs?
 
Dubai is not third world! Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Dubai is not a place that is taking our jobs; they are providing jobs to many people from nearby nations like India and Pakistan.

The local citizens of the UAE have an average annual income that is as high as or higher than the US.

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8:If Islam doesn’t advocate terrorism as your article claims, how come Muslims don’t condemn terrorists?
 
They do. There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. How many are terrorists? I did not mean to make the major focus of the article religion or certainly terror. I didn’t even mention terror in the article. It is an article about business and positive things.
The events of 9-11 had a large economic and other impact on all the citizens of the Middle East and the overwhelming majority of Muslims are very much against terrorism. The overwhelming majority of Muslim nations are allies with the US.
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9:Do you really think all this will work? How will they get the construction expertise to do such advanced building?
 
Well, it’s already working. Dubai is not a pipe dream; it’s an actual place you can go to. Some projects are in the planning stages but many are already under construction, many are done. One person emailed me and said that the indoor Ski Resort will “never work” and that they are underestimating the resources needed for continuous cooling etc etc. Well Ski Dubai is done, it is not under construction, it’s completed, the snow is there, it is working and I’ve seen it. Anyone else can see it who wants to.

The construction expertise is there now and it is working. Burj Dubai (the tallest tower in the world) is not a concept, its real and it will be done. Just because some parts of the world are slower with construction doesn’t mean that everyone has to be.
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10:Aren’t you concerned about the continued rise of Islamic fundamentalism and that this will just be a temporary phase until the Taliban or someone takes over?
 
No. There is no “Taliban” running through the streets of the UAE! Again, this is a highly developed country that is very safe, secure, stable and modern. Most people who have been there would not understand your question or, no offence, might laugh at the notion. I appreciate your question; because it helps put in perspective how much most of us Americans need to learn about Dubai.
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