SALON

Sunday, Apr 29, 2012 12:15 PM UTC

Family: Islamist activist detained in UAE

By

Topics: From the Wires,

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Security agents detained a rights activist Sunday in the northern United Arab Emirates as part of an apparent widening crackdown on perceived opposition figures, a family member and a watchdog group said.

The detention is the second in less than a week in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah and reflects stepped up pressures by UAE authorities on Islamist groups, social media activists and others considered to be potential foes of the country’s network of ruling clans.

Although the UAE has not faced street protests linked to last year’s Arab Spring uprisings, security officials have increasingly targeted web sites and groups urging a greater role for the public in the nation’s affairs. Authorities also have warned about the possible expanding influence of Islamist ideology that could clash with Western-friendly policies in the Gulf.

In the latest incident, activist Saleh al-Dhufairi was led away by security agents after prayers at a mosque in Ras al-Khaimah, the most northern of the seven semiautonomous emirates comprising the UAE, said his son Hassan.

The elder al-Dhufairi was arrested by authorities last month for web postings critical of state security operations, then released. He was referred to a state security court on charges of attempting to “stir sedition and abuse religion,” according to the state news agency WAM at the time.

UAE officials had no immediate comment on Sunday’s detention.

The London-based Emirates Center for Human Rights urged authorities to grant al-Dhufairi immediate access to legal counsel and make his whereabouts known.

“The UAE authorities are acting with impunity and with a complete disregard for the rule of law,” said a statement by the group.

Last week, a member of Ras al-Khaimah’s ruling family was placed under full-time guard in a palace for apparent affiliation with an Islamist group calling for more political openness in the UAE, according to relatives. It remains unclear, however, whether authorities will try to bring formal charges against Sheik Sultan al-Qasimi, a cousin of the Ras al-Khaimah ruler.

Six other pro-reform activists — some of them members of the same Islamist group, known as al-Islah, or Reform — also are being held by UAE officials after being stripped of their citizenship for criticizing the country’s rulers.

Last year, five political activists, including a prominent blogger and an economics professor who has frequently lectured at Abu Dhabi’s branch of the Sorbonne university, were convicted of anti-state crimes after signing an online petition calling for a greater public voice in the country’s affairs.

They were freed on a presidential order, but the charges against them have not been officially dropped.

More Brian Murphy.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations