Monday, January 11, 2010

Injustice Served

You might have seen the clip of the brother of the UAE's president, Sheikh Issa Bin Zayid torturing a helpless tied Afghani worker for 40 minutes, nonstop.

Bassam and Ghassan Nabulsi, two Palestinians living in the US, smuggled the tape inside the US and ABC news showed it last year.

Here's a short clip of it:



Today, an Emirati court cleared Issa from any abuse charges.

Not only that, they charged they sentenced the Nabulsis for "drugging" the Issa and taping him torturing the man.

I have to add that the Afghani man was also raped after all the beating. He was tied, beaten up and raped.

I consider you a civilized person if you appreciate human rights, treat people as equals, stop the corruption, and give a chance for your people to have a better life. It doesn't come with building towers, artificial islands and bringing under-privileged women from Eastern Europe to work as sex slaves in your fancy brothels. As long as you treat Indians, Bengalis, Pakistanis, and anyone who works under you like a slave, you're still a douche bag.

9 comments:

jaraad said...

You know since the video was released I always wanted to know how UAE will deal with this inhumane incident. They FAILED miserably. I used to argue with my friends that they will charge him just to safe themselves from the humiliation in front of the world. But it seems the world doesn't care when you are rich. Shame, shame, shame on UAE!

Hareega said...

Unfortunately this incident reflected what's very wrong about us:
1- We don't value human rights
2- We're OK with physically abusing criminals (assuming the Afghani was a criminal)
3- We look down on poor immigrants coming to our countries to work, way down to a degree that they're dehumanized.
4- Important people can get away with ANYTHING. Rape, torture, even murder, every single thing

za3tar said...

I totally agree with the four points you listed in your comment.

However, I think that points 3 & 4 apply even in the American society. for #3, look at how people treat Mexicans or other laborers in the US? for #4, too many examples to list, OJ Simpson, Dick Cheney ...etc.

Solomon2 said...

In a society where people can attain a station where justice and accountability cannot reach, there is where you have an aristocracy that must be uprooted by peaceful means if possible, or revolutionary means if necessary.

KJ said...

It's a sad day for the law system here, if exists

Ehab said...

It seems our need to show our humanity tends to cloud our judgement about what is related to what.

I agree that what happened to the afghani guy is horrible and sad, and the way it was handled was even worse.however, I fail to see the relation between that and the flashy hotels, towers and artificial islands, you want to criticize the legal system? Fine. But undermining the accomplishments of UAE is far from fair. Nobody cursed Manhatan, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills and the rest because of the war on Iraq & Afghanistan.all human rights activists and normal people acknowledge America's advances in different fields of life, and don't undermine it because of the savage ploicies of the US in the middle east.

Lest we want the arab world to remain in the dark ages providing mediocre standard of life to its people, we need to acknowledge the achievements of countries like the UAE.

More needs to be done on the human rights' side, but my fair is that we are starting to lash ourselves and undermine our progress as if we are envious and ungrateful.
Rest assured, as an arab and a muslim I will be humiliated, downgraded and violated in the west. So no bragging rights for anyone in this case.

It is sad, and regretful. But I'd choose ten times over to in Dubai and build a life there. My risks are a lot less here knowing that I will have to demonstrate my private parts to a douche bag in an airport the minute I step into the country, and then spend the rest of my life justifying why I don't agree with what America says, and try to convince everyone that not agreeing doesn't mean I'm the enemy!

Hareega said...

Ehab, if the officials in the US had the same mentality as those in the UAE, all Arabs and Muslims in the US would have been deported right after 9/11. Those who wouldn't have left would have been killed or tortured or somehow forced to leave by American people.

I like to see Dubai florishing and I hope for the economy there to bounce back, especially with so many Jordanians working over there.

However, I think it's pathetic to respect a country for its wealth or for the way it's handling it, even if it was appropriately handled. I can only respect a country by the way it treats its residents. I may be treated better in Dubai or Amman only because I am an Arab, but I shouldn't let that blind to me to the fact of how Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis and any poor worker is being treated as a sub-human.

In Arab countries, people expose their private parts not only at airports, but also at police stations and private intelligence offices and quite often have those parts chopped off if the citizen had some argument against the leader.

Arabs and Muslims continue to immigrate in large numbers to the US, and most of those who do don't want to come back, so I don't believe you when you say that you will be humiliated. You might, but it's very unlikely or let's just the chances of you getting humiliated and disrespected is way much higher if you remianed in your Arab country (wherever you're living now) than in the US. At least in the US, if you follow the rules you will become a REAL citizen after a few years instead of still being treated like a liability even if you've spent your entire life in whatever Arab country.

Hareega said...

Za3tar... a lot of people look down on Mexicans, but racism is generally unacceptable. Besides there are a lot of non-latinos who support Mexicans immigrants and their rights as well.
I agree with the Dick Cheney comment, this criminal shouldn't be locked up. But the torture he allowed was with waterboarding and not raping inmates.

Solomon2.... only if people knew better, and I don't think they know better

Unknown said...

All the Arabs I know have been welcomed with open arms. Keep in mind that there are ignorant racist ppl everywhere, Arabs that hate americans and vice versa! Funny why would God create ppl of different races if they are not all equal and deserve the same respect as anyone else...answer God sees us all as equal and values each of us! This is common sense, but some ppl have no common sense!