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Sheikh Muhammad, ruler of Dubai, wants to reach Mars and imprison his daughters Profile | Israel today

2021-10-20T13:00:09.577Z


He turned Dubai from a sleepy desert town to an ultra-modern city that attracts tens of millions of tourists a year • But Emir al-Maktoum is not only a genius entrepreneur but also a devout Muslim accused of imprisoning his daughters and smuggling his wife • Who is the man behind some of the most amazing ventures In the world - and "stars" in the tragic telenovela of the local royal house


One of the first sites to which many of the millions of tourists who land in Dubai flock is the gleaming and huge "Dubai Mall".

The futuristic mall, which boasts, among other things, an artificial waterfall tens of meters high and an amusement park on the purity of virtual reality, is studded with countless stores of the world's leading luxury brands.

Then, during the leisurely stroll between the Rolex store and that of Pierre Cardin, the muezzin's voice suddenly emanates from the mall's public address system, reminding everyone that prayer time has come.

This situation expresses well how the whole of Dubai reflects the vision of one person and his many contradictory personalities: Sheikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Amir Dubai and one of the most influential rulers in the Middle East and the world.

In the middle of the desert, on the dunes of the Persian Gulf, Sheikh Muhammad (as he is called) established a city that at first glance looks like a play from the future, but at the same time struggles to preserve the values ​​of Islam and is under the rule of a pious, absolute and controversial ruler.

The United Arab Emirates is a unique country, a federation with a central government that unites seven local "royal houses", each headed by an emir who rules as monarch in his emirates.

Under the constitution, the president of the union is Amir Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate, and the ruler of Dubai - the second largest emirate - serves as prime minister, vice president and defense minister.  

By virtue of his senior status, al-Maktoum took a significant part in the "Abrahamic agreements" signed with Israel more than a year ago.

In contrast, the world is best known for turning Dubai from a remote, sleepy desert town into a tourist gem and international business center.

Ever since he grew up as a child in a privileged Bedouin family he changed Dubai beyond recognition, but throughout he continued to maintain a demonstrated nostalgia for life before the immense wealth that black gold showered on him.

"When I was seven or eight, I was sent to the Bedouin in the desert to study hunting," says al-Maktoum, 72, in his book "My Story: 50 Stories in 50 Years."

"For days my father left me with the Bedouin Hamid and learned from him the movement of animals. How to hunt the predators and how to hunt the weak. There is no use, for example, in trying to hunt a rabbit while watching, because he is nimble. The best way is to follow his movements until forgiveness."

The sheikh remarks that the rabbits are trying to obscure traces, but only those who are familiar with the desert and their habits, are still able to hunt them. 

The house where he grew up was built of mud and stone walls, and is still on display for the various visitors.

His grandfather would get up before dawn, walk to the well and fill it with a large bucket of water.

He would then go to the mosque and make sure the worshipers wash their hands and feet before prayer.

According to al-Maktoum, he learned from him "to control love and not fear."

Al-Maktoum also knew well a prophetic anecdote of his father, Sheikh Rashad bin Said: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel and I drove a Mercedes," the father used to tell.

"My son drives a Land Rover, my grandson will drive a Land Rover - but my grandson will ride a camel."

The parable is that the extreme wealth that comes from gas and oil reserves is a transient matter - and should not be relied upon.

Thanks to this far-sighted understanding, the father was entrusted with a series of ventures that made Dubai a modern city.

He paved roads and a tunnel for vehicles, established two ports and founded a world trade center.

But for the real leap forward, which made Dubai what it is today, signed by his son, Sheikh Muhammad. 

"The difference between a prosperous kingdom and a kingdom that will collapse"

Another event engraved in the memory of the young sheikh and influencing the nature of the rule he instituted in Dubai is the ostentatious celebrations in Persepolis organized by Shah Raza Pahlavi in ​​1971, marking 2,500 years since the founding of the Persian Empire.

Sheikh Muhammad was sent to the event to represent Dubai, where he was exposed to the Shah's legendary extravagance.

A huge feast was held for the guests, which among other things served 50 roasted peacocks.

But on his way to the megalomaniacal celebrations, Muhammad noticed dozens of poor villagers, and children running around houses that did not even have electricity infrastructure.

A few years later, with the fall of the Shah's rule in the Islamic Revolution, he realized that the difference between a prosperous kingdom and a kingdom that would collapse was "closeness to the people."

Determined to continue his father's legacy and build a thriving economy independent of gas and oil money, Emir accompanied the growth of Emirates and became one of the world's leading companies, establishing a free economic zone, of the grandiose Burj al-Arab Hotel considered one of the most luxurious in the world. And of the tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa.

It soon became one of the largest real estate ventures in the world.

Sarah El Amiri, Minister of Advanced Technologies in the United Arab Emirates, on the background of Mars // Photo: EP,

Al-Maktoum owns many properties around the world, including 50 percent of the City Center complex in Las Vegas, which houses luxury hotels, casinos, apartment buildings and commercial areas.

He also owns a horse farm in the UK - a hobby he shares quite by chance with Queen Elizabeth, known as a die-hard horse racing enthusiast.

Closer to home, in Dubai, he initiated the drying up of the sea in favor of setting up the unprecedented real estate venture "Palm Jumeira" - an archipelago of artificial islands in the shape of a huge palm, seen even from space, and studded with hundreds of luxurious villas purchased by Dubai rich and celebrities from around the world. David Beckham and his wife Victoria.

Black gold has served as a springboard for all of these ventures and for the development of new industries, and today Dubai no longer relies heavily on oil or gas revenues.

The approximately 20 million tourists who visited the emirates before the corona, and are now beginning to return, along with the millions of foreign workers and investors, provide the small emirate with billions of dollars in revenue each year.

A city on Mars and scandals at home

When he felt that the earth was beginning to be too small to apply the ambitions of, al-Maktoum sought new avenues to expand into.

Under his direction, the United Arab Emirates joined the space race, and even embarked on a venture that sought to establish a first permanent settlement on Mars by 2117.

According to him, the venture is a seed that the federation is burying these days for the sake of future generations who are expected to enjoy its fruits.

The program, which is like a client from science fiction movies, is to build a complex of buildings called the "Scientific City of March," which will include food, energy, water and agriculture labs to meet all its own needs. 

But despite being a far-sighted and groundbreaking visionary, Al Maktoum has often been involved in affair that has cast a heavy shadow over the modernist image he strives to convey to the world.

In December 2001, an investigation was opened in Britain after Princess Shamsa, the daughter of Amir Dubai, was abducted.

The central investigator was able to confirm basic details in the story, but was not allowed to come to Dubai to complete the investigation, and the case was closed. 

Shamsa was on holiday in England in 2000 when she was 18. She ran away because she did not feel free in Dubai and her father did not allow her to continue her university studies.

"I saw her as a mother figure and kept in touch with her during the escape," her sister told Dropa, who herself tried to escape the statements twice. "What my father did was go to her friend and try to bribe her with a Rolex watch."

At the end of about two months, Shamsa was located and abducted to Dubai by private jet while drugged.

There, she was kept in a building called Khaima.

But Shamsa leaked the story to the British press.

Following this, the Dubai police arrested her for questioning as part of which she was tortured and beaten. 

In retrospect, this was just one episode in a series of episodes that would not have embarrassed a Turkish telenovela.

In March 2018, a tape of another daughter, Princess Latifa, was leaked to the media, in which she testified that she was abducted after a failed escape attempt from the statements in 2002.

In a BBC investigation, her second escape attempt was described in great detail, which eventually leaked the same tape.

Latifa, it turned out, felt disconnected from the local culture.

Although she lived a luxury life that included hobbies such as scuba diving and skydiving, and although she forged friendships with young people from the West at an international school - she felt imprisoned in a cage of gold.

For example, her father forbade her to meet certain friends or go on dates.

When water came to a head, she devised a daring plan together with her best friend from Finland: the two planned to flee Dubai with the help of a former French intelligence man.

One day they got into a car and drove up to the port of Muscat, the nearby capital of Oman.

The two young women managed to reach the deck of the intelligence man’s yacht, and began sailing towards India.

The plan was to anchor in Goa, travel to the airport and fly from there to the US, where she planned to seek political asylum.

While sailing on the yacht, Latifa felt safe enough to text her family members that she was fleeing.

Night fell and the yacht approached the shores of India, but then everything went wrong: commando fighters and combined military forces of India and the UAE raided the ship and abducted the princess.

Her Finnish friend was also abducted and deported from Dubai back to her homeland.

Later, she will appeal to Queen Elizabeth to act for Latifa's release.

Just before her father's soldiers captured her, the princess managed to send the video to a human rights organization, revealing to the world a dark side of Sheikh Muhammad's personality.

"This video may be the last," she said fearfully to the camera.

"All my dad cares about is his reputation, and if you're watching this video - it's not a good thing. Either I'm dead or I'm in really bad shape."

As mentioned, in the same video, she revealed that she was abducted in 2002 for attempted escape, and was imprisoned for about three years.

Then, she said, she was trapped on the border between the UAE and Oman.

"It was an ongoing torture," she said in tears. "Even when they did not physically beat me - they tortured me." According to her, the guards in charge of her closed the windows in the villa where she was imprisoned and used to play with the lights until she could not know when day and when night, or when a new day begins. "They put me in jail and tortured me. One guy held me and another guy hit me. They told me, 'Your dad told us to hit you until we kill you. These are the instructions. The whole image he's trying to paint,' human rights, 'is bullshit. He's the person. "The worst I've ever met. There's nothing good about him. He's responsible for so many deaths and destruction of human lives. He's not doing the dirty work himself, he's just bringing in other people to do it."

In the video, she expressed a hope for Dropa that she could help Massa, whose condition is unclear after she escaped.

The affair caused a worldwide uproar and a few months after it was abducted, a picture of Latifa was published with Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland, in order to allay concerns about the young woman's safety.

The family scandal and the Israeli connection

Unfortunately for al-Maktoum, the scandals continued to pile up.

A year later, it was reported that his sixth wife, Haia, the daughter of the late King of Jordan Hussein and King Abdullah's half-sister, had fled Dubai to Germany to find political asylum with their son and daughter.

It was also reported that the emir's wife took with her 31 million euros and asked for exclusive custody of her children, due to forced marriage.

Following the scandal, the UK High Court has held the sheikh responsible for the abductions of his two daughters and for a campaign of intimidation against his wife.

A few weeks ago, the AP news agency reported that the judges ruled that Amir al-Maktoum was responsible for the hacking of his ex-wife Aya and her lawyer during the legal battle over custody of their two children.

According to the ruling, Sheikh Muhammad explicitly or implicitly authorized the hacking of the telephones using the Pegasus spyware, manufactured by the Israeli company NSA.

And if that wasn't enough, the judges also ruled that the princess' allegations were a bit of credible abuse.

Photo: Reuters,

At first glance, it seems that Al Maktoum's murky relationship with his family members is in stark contrast to the many love and respect he has acquired for his mother.

In his book, Amir Dubai dedicates three consecutive chapters to it, and testifies that he was closer to her than all the children.

For example, he said that one day, while hunting in the desert, he captured a deer and brought it to her as a gift.

The mother, by the way, was called Latifa, and named after her three daughters (Latifa, who revealed the affair of the exposures, is the middle one between them).

When the mother died in 1983, he testified that he felt great emptiness and terrible pain.

Another tragic incident that befell the emir occurred in 2015 when his eldest son, Rashid bin Muhammad al-Maktoum, died following a heart attack at the age of only 33.

The death was preceded by a murky relationship between the two.

According to a WikiLeaks leak, in 2008 the emir appointed his second son Hamdan as heir to the throne.

The leak stated that it was alleged that the eldest son had murdered an assistant in the emir's office, and that he had not held a public office since.

"Change or change"

Beyond the scandals and tragedies in the ruling family, Dubai is still run, as mentioned, as an autocracy for everything.

When asked by the BBC reporter how he knows his people are happy, Al Maktoum replied with a kind of smiling innocence: "They have my phone."

In 2005, as he used to tell in international forums, he conveyed a message to the leaders of Arab countries that "you will change or you will change."

It was about five and a half years before the outbreak of the "Arab Spring."

He said some of the leaders were angry with him and others asked what he knew about the future.

Al Maktoum replied that the future could not be known, but the signs could be seen.

"Arab leaders are surrounded by officials who tell them that everything is fine, that the people are happy. However, the indications are that people are not happy, that the economy is weak, that there are millions of young university graduates who have no future."

Photo: Reuters,

In this context, it should be borne in mind that about 90% of the private sector labor force in the UAE is made up of foreign workers, so it is not great wisdom to worry about the welfare of the minority of locals in the country while others do the undeclared work.

Human rights organizations are concerned that the sheikh in particular and the UAE in general are using a variety of means to whitewash an ongoing and institutionalized human rights violation in a federation where the justice system is still deeply rooted in the Middle Ages and does not allow for fair trial for detainees. Since 2011, the year the “Arab Spring” erupted and made waves in the Middle East, UAE authorities have consistently violated elections and freedom of expression. Hundreds of lawyers and trade unionists have been arrested by authorities, as well as judges, teachers, students and activists. When Al Maktoum is asked in the media about such incidents, he chooses to evade and say that the UAE is not perfect, "and that they are" fixing things. "

But it seems that what is really behind the strict enforcement and opposition to the democratization of the UAE, is the tangible fear that this is a ladder to the takeover of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Members of the movement have been operating in the Gulf states since the 1960s, but following the "Arab Spring" and their rise to power in Egypt, they posed a direct threat to the Gulf rulers.

Following this, the movement was defined as a terrorist organization and many of its members were arrested.

The Emirates also explain this by the aversion he felt to the ruling extremist Islam, Muhammad bin Zayed al-Nahian, who supports a moderate version of Islam.

Dubai Coastline, Photo: AFP

As the first public official to be the Dubai Police Chief and for decades the United Arab Emirates' Minister of Defense, it is hard to believe that Malkum does not know in depth the conduct of the police and security forces in his country.

Therefore the necessary change he is talking about is not democratization, but a softening of the West to attract foreign investment, and the use of the capital of the emirates to suppress threats like the Muslim Brotherhood and establish the stability of government.

The softening of the West is underway in establishing the UAE's reputation as an open and progressive country.

Federation officials are proud of the "soft power strategy", which includes cultural and media diplomacy as a key pillar in strengthening international status.

The international expo that opened last month in Dubai and the ambitious space project are just examples of a press operated by the UAE around the globe, designed to prevent the smuggling of foreign investors, open up European markets and attract millions of tourists, those who will replace black gold.

Other moves have included the establishment of museums in Abu Dhabi that work in collaboration with the Louvre in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, as well as the construction of a New York University campus and more.

Al-Maktoum was the one who officially launched this strategy in May 2017. Eventually, the sheikh who learned to hunt in the desert as a child understood what dictators of his generation failed to internalize: impossible to hunt when the rabbit is alert to the environment and watches.

It is better to follow in his footsteps and reach his home.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-10-20

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