Dubai police will not curb freedoms

From Gulf News 22 June '09
- To refresh your memory of what is considered offensive or obscene in Dubai, please revisit the Dubai Code of Conduct.
- The article from The Independent (UK) about money from Somali pirates being laundered in Dubai is here.
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Dubai Police do not restrict the freedom of the diverse communities here, but there are red lines that must not be crossed because the UAE, an Islamic Arab country, prides itself in its rich values, said a senior official.
Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that it is not the duty of police to interrogate or interfere with couples in Dubai, but if they are spotted committing obscene actions then they will intervene. His comments come after several incidents of public indecency, which prompted the British Foreign Office to issue a travel advisory for its citizens.
"I think it is clear to the average person what is meant by obscene. There are red lines that must not be crossed. The country has its values and traditions which cannot be overlooked to satisfy others," Al Mazeina said.
The slight increase in financial crimes, he said, is not related to the financial crisis.
"We had cases of forged credit cards from abroad which were used in Dubai. Dubai Police have urged banks to issue credit cards with pin codes for all transactions to reduce counterfeit cases," he said.
Al Mazeina said traffic fines have been raised because tougher fines help reduce accidents.
He said a Dh100 or Dh200 fine was not a deterrent because living standards are high here. Now a single fine can amount to Dh1,000. Statistics show that tougher fines and more radars have reduced accidents significantly.
He also quashed rumours that Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev who was shot in March in the car park of an apartment block in Dubai is still alive. Yamadayev was a foe of Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
In response to a report by a British newspaper, he stressed that Somali pirates' money is not laundered through Dubai. The Independent said vast sums of ransom money that the pirates received were laundered in Dubai and other GCC countries.
He said some sections want to tarnish the image of the UAE by spreading vicious rumours.

Waiting for the backlash

Not a good week for expats here after the publication in the UK, in that august publication the Sun, of the story of an unbelievable act of expat stupidity in Dubai. In summary, a female expat resident of Dubai goes to a well-known hotel for Friday brunch, gets totally hammered, hooks up with a male expat, they carry on pub crawling and next thing she is seen by a UAE policeman having s*x or as they say in the Sun "romping" with the male expat on Jumeirah Beach. They are warned but let go, then shortly afterwards the policeman sees them "romping" again, he warns them again, she goes ballistic, throws her shoes at him and calls him a "*%&ing Muslim". They are arrested and now both are whinging that they are hard-done-by as they stare down the barrel of a possible 6 year jail term (Western jails are holiday camps compared to the jails here.)

This situation has been widely discussed here in the UAE both in the general media and in expat forums. Now that a glimpse of the less attractive face of expat life in Dubai (the "underbelly" I think the Sun called it) has been revealed to the rest of the world, there will be far greater media interest worldwide and the story itself or reports of the morals crackdown have appeared in papers in Australia and NZ. This is not the sort of publicity the authorities in Dubai like, and my concern, shared by many other residents, is that there will be a backlash against the expats already in Dubai. What form that backlash will take, we will have to wait and see. I wonder if, just as one example, the 'Holes in the Wall' which operate in certain other Emirates and are huge expat favourites, will be looked at more closely?

I would think that the management of the hotel where the brunch was held has their collective arses in a sling - I wonder if the restaurant manager still has a job - and the company's local sponsor has probably received big-time GBH of the earhole!

The Gulf News reports that extra patrols will police Dubai's beaches to ensure appropriate clothing is being worn and to crack down on displays of "indecent affection" between couples. I hope their attention will also be directed at the groups of guys who come down to the beaches to stare at the women while playing 'pocket billards'.