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Why we banned 
the Brotherhood

This is a question which has engaged public opinion for some time, because of the attempt of the pseudo-Muslim Brotherhood to target the United Arab Emirates by fabricating a lot of reasons that were unrelated to the situation in the Emirates and to the nature of its structure, nor even to its style of life.

Among the many faults closely associated with the Brotherhood organisation was that it requires its members, especially those involved in the information media, to attack certain countries about which they do not know more than what is being circulated verbally or in writing, and which they had not visited, nor did they know anything about the nature and form of life in it. All they knew about it was the picture, which the organisation wanted them to know and through the lens the group wanted them to see through.

This shortcoming was obvious in the demonstration that was led by the organisation in front of the United Nations building in Geneva. The camera of one Emirati citizen, exposed in an interview with them, that the demonstrators did not know the geographical location of the Emirates, and that none of the demonstrators had ever visited the Emirates, nor had any knowledge about its problems. One of the demonstrators admitted that they belonged to the group of Arabs who had been rejected by their national communities and who had to emigrate and suffer through the hardships of living in different geographical settings. They admitted that unemployment and lack of job opportunity made them grasp such demonstration opportunities, which do not require more than memorising some slogans and shouting them in front of the site.

The pseudo-Islamic Brotherhood had recently intensified its attack against the Emirates. The method this time was the abuse of organisations operating under the cover of defending human rights. The role of these organisations had been exposed in areas of conflict and wars in various parts of the world. Many governments had kicked these groups out of their countries. Due to the role of these groups, the world witnessed the biggest defamation campaign against human rights. Muslim Brotherhood organisation has excelled in establishing ‘legalistic’ organisations. Inside the countries where the Brotherhood organisation exists, we notice that it depends for its secretive and public existence upon the establishment of various puppet organisations.

The internal affairs of a country are not the only attraction to the attention of the Brotherhood in setting up organisations. The outside world has been of greater interest for the Brothers. The importance of external organisations lies in the ease of their cover up under a guise different from that of the Brotherhood, and in their extensive freedom to move in all parts of the world, taking advantage of weak supervision over them, and of their ability to easily formulate a public opinion to put pressure upon the countries in which they operate.

The various organisations set up by the Brotherhood are usually created to serve several purposes. The most important of these purposes is to become a permanent source of collecting donations and sending the proceeds to the central organisation on whose throne sits the Supreme Guide aided by a group that benefits from his presence and the existence of the Organisation. In that money collecting process, they force the organisations and societies to tell lies to gain the support of benefactors and supporters. That includes the misuse of Zakat (alms) decreed by Islam, and of charitable donations to those in need. Money is collected under these religious guises to be used for purposes other than those meant by the donors.

The second reason for setting up such organisations is manifested in attracting people to join the Brotherhood. In this effort preachers are supported with a variety of weapons including religious (fatwas) dictates, which might be contradicting each other. The world had seen several of these contradicting proclamations. Al Garadawi, for example, had decreed that the citizens might denounce their rulers. That decree was made before the Muslim Brothers took over the reins of power in Egypt. He decreed after the Brothers sat on the Egyptian throne that the ruler must be obeyed even if he (the ruler) is unjust.

The third reason for the establishment of Brotherhood organisations is they use pressure tactics against the countries targeted by the Brothers whenever they want. In serving this purpose, the pro-Brotherhood organisations establish a variety of relations with other groups. That might extend sometimes to partnership with non-Brotherhood groups, even if their ideology is contrary to that of the Brothers. The purpose of such intimacy is to put targeted countries under siege.

In spite of the great achievements of the Emirates in various fields, at the top of which is human rights, to the degree that many independent quarters had decreed that the United Arab Emirates is at the top of nations where citizens and residents enjoy a high standard of living. And in spite of the fact that the Emirates had achieved prominence in the world as a land of law, the Brotherhood organisation incited its affiliates against the Emirates. That was done through arranging for visits by such organisations to the Federal High Court in the Emirates without obtaining permission to do so. Consequently, they were not allowed to enter the court because they did not obtain prior permission to do so, in accordance with the law, to enter the court.

One of those mercenaries had asked me in an interview arranged by the BBC about the reason for not allowing those organisations to enter the court. My answer was simply that we are a law abiding country, and that all activities are conducted in accordance with the law. The simplest of the legal rights of the state was that these organisations should have submitted a request to visit the court. The most important question remains: Why did these organisations ignore what had been reported by the information media about events in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and other areas of international conflict, and direct all their concern to the Emirates, which is enjoying stability, security, openness and abides by the law.

Dr Salem Humaid is an Emirati writer and Chairman of Al Mezmaah Studies & Research Center