The UAE’s dangerous relations with militant groups nullify their claims about tolerance
A prominent French writer said that the UAE’s dangerous relations with militant groups nullify their claims that they are a model of tolerance and enlightenment of Islam.
The French researcher Jean-Pierre Feliu said in an article in the French newspaper Le Monde that the remarkable support provided by the UAE to France in the cartoon crisis has strengthened the position of those inside France, who see Abu Dhabi as a model of “tolerance” and a bulwark against “Islamist extremism”.
Feliu emphasized that they quickly forgot that the police dictatorship in the Emirates does not tolerate parties or elections and that only 10% of the population of this country are citizens.
Besides, far from the image of openness that is marketed to it in Europe, the UAE enjoys close relations with “extremely dark” Chechnya and supports ruthless Salafi militias in Libya and Yemen.
The researcher added that Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been put by Vladimir Putin at the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya since 2007, was by far the most ferocious Muslim leader against France during the controversy over the cartoons.
He even allowed the remains of the young Chechen who killed the French teacher Samuel Patty to be returned to be buried “with “honour. This does not seem to bother his great friend, Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, who has always welcomed Kadyrov with great respect in Abu Dhabi, whether in an official capacity, as President of Chechnya or Putin’s envoy, or in particular.
On the other hand, the researcher considered that Mohammed bin Zayed’s obsession with hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood led him to describe them as “terrorists” and to favor them the Salafists, even though they are more militant.
The Emirati special forces, participating on the ground in Yemen, cooperated with the Salafi leaders, so that Abu Dhabi ensured the continued support of one of their leaders in Taiz, militarily and financially, despite his inclusion in the American “blacklist” of terrorists because of his cooperation with the local branch of the organization Al-Qaeda.
In Libya, the writer said that Mohammed bin Zayed is the most generous supporter of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Unlike Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which also support Haftar, the UAE actively promotes cooperation between Haftar’s fighters and the Salafi militias, whose spiritual leader resides in Saudi Arabia, Rabih al-Madkhali. The scholar issued a fatwa from there three years ago in support of Haftar, on the basis that the Muslim Brotherhood, who are active in The government in Tripoli, “is more dangerous for the Salafists than the Jews and the Christians.”
The French writer concluded by saying that the saying “enemies of my enemies are my friends” seems to justify the worrying and dangerous relations with the most radical Islamic currents in Chechnya, Yemen or Libya.
But regardless of basic geopolitical considerations, such settlements should nullify the UAE’s claims that it embodies a form of “Enlightenment Islam”.
