Trip to Dubai

I had written before on Islam always othering Christianity in pursuit of their identity. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on this issue but from what I understand, Islam arose from the needs to provide an alternative to Christianity in the Middle Eastern region. How it arose to prominence seems to come from even secular reasons due to geo-political exigencies.

Recently I develop an interest in the Middle Eastern region after a visit to Dubai last week. Very often, we paint the Arab Muslims as living in another world with the beards and often traditional clothings. When I went there, I began to realise that their traditional clothings have quite practical uses. It was extremely hot there, up to 50 degrees in the open sun, the loose fitting clothings meant that it was not as inconvenient to wear in the extreme temperatures. But the women clothing were something different. They were in black and covered from head to toe, and it seems extremely uncomfortable in the hot weather, but I gathered that it is due to their traditional readings of Islam.

I read up abit on Middle East over the course of the last few weeks and began to realise, it is quite a diverse region. Saudi Arabia is considered to be an area where more traditional readings of Islam is being followed. Women must be appropriately covered and are not even allowed to drive. But nonetheless, the government is trying to modernize the economy and diversify from oil revenues and trying to build various sectors of their economy. From property, tourism to banking, they are trying to move away from their reliance from oil

Other parts of Middle East are considered to be liberal, and does not impose such rules on it's people and visitors alike. UAE where I visited, is quite liberal. I don't see any difference living there and any part of the cosmopolitan city like New York, Paris, Hong Kong or Singapore. What you can get in these places, you can get it in Dubai as well.

Talking about Middle East, you cannot avoid talking about IS- or Islamic State. What I saw from Dubai seems to be quite far-fetched from the world of IS. In fact, they seems to love American cars and brands more than anywhere else in the world. The strange thing about Dubai is that there almost 8 foreigners for every local here hence it cannot be representative. I did not really meet any locals when I was there but what I can see is that people are prospering there. Although, I find that some things are somewhat over the top and I am not sure whether it is last after the novelty factor wears off but I have no doubt that they are trying to emulate the western concept of capitalism.

Although, they are very modern but you will find restrictions on certain days or regions. Like some restrictions during praying times on Fridays, they still cling on their beliefs. There is no attempt to impose any form of caliphate in the region. They are welcoming to foreigners insofar that they bring in the tourist dollar or precious skill to build the economy.

Maybe I have not visited the traditional parts of Middle East and do not see how they lived but when I read a little more about them, I began to realise that even though most of these states are autocratic in the sense that citizens do not have the right to vote, I see that the rulers also care about the welfare of the people. During my visit there, there was an Emirates plane that caught fire and a fireman had died during the blaze, the emir of the state actually visited the family of the fireman whom had died in the blaze, the newspaper had reported. There was no need for him to do that as he was actually the head of the state.

Sometimes, I begin to wonder whether systems make men or men makes systems in such cases. You don't necessary need politicians to fight for votes to show their human side, sometimes such acts can also come from the heart.

Sometimes, maybe the western media "other-rize", "exoticize" and "demonize" Muslims so much that they seems to come from another planet but it seems that they have quite similar concerns from us. It would be good if some of us would try to have some interest in the less-often  visited region of the worlds and try to come to terms with in our terms rather than see them eyes which could be biased from the start.