A rentier economy, squanderer of resources, normaliser of Israeli oppression, majority of its population is foreign, 11% of the total population are cotizens, capitalism all over the place, but coexists with a ruling family, stoning, flogging, amputation as punishments, horrible treatment of migrant workers ... A reactionary regime that is now trying to change some of its legislations to please the Israelis and their Western protectors, marshalling a façade of social liberalisation while squashing economic and political rights. Now at least two of barbaric practices, lashing for alcohol consumption and criminalising “fornication”, are going to cease. However, these are not personal freedoms won by the people and it will mostly concern the non-Muslims. Power relations and property ownership in the country are entrenched and would not allow the breaking of social norms. UAE announces relaxing of Islamic laws for personal freedoms
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51