Last week, a court in the United Arab Emirates sentenced 43 people to life in prison for operating what it said was a dissident Muslim Brotherhood group that planned to commit terror attacks in the country. The court also handed down lesser sentences to 11 individuals involved and convicted six companies of money laundering to support a terrorist organization.
These convictions represent yet another phase in the UAE’s ongoing battle against the Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE has designated a terrorist group alongside ISIS and the Houthis.
The same week, the UAE deported a former NYU Abu Dhabi student after he yelled “Free Palestine” while receiving his diploma. The student, who was wearing a keffiyeh, was removed from the country only days after the incident. Officials cited his violation of “local law.” The government had explicitly warned students that “displaying the Palestinian flag anywhere on campus is not permitted,” even in residential buildings. It strictly enforced this policy against pro-Palestinian encampments, which got zero traction at the university.
One can raise some reasonable criticisms of the UAE’s harsh policies and human rights record, including as they relate to the terror trial. Human rights groups have accused the UAE of retroactive justice and trying people twice for the same crime. But the UAE’s zero-tolerance policy for those who foment unrest and openly support terror offers some valuable insights for an America that has spent the past nine months watching protestors cheer on radical Islamist groups.
The UAE is a dependable ally of the United States, particularly in the war on terror. The country has deployed alongside the U.S. in stabilization, counterterror and peacekeeping missions six times, more than any other Arab military. This should resonate with Americans concerned about the rise of radical Islam.
Moreover, the UAE understands that violent extremists will not be defeated by force alone. Defeating them also requires cutting off funding, halting the promotion of violence on social media and preventing the use of religious centers for recruitment and radicalization.
In other words, the UAE would never allow a place like Dearborn, Michigan—which has been described as “America’s jihad capital”—where radical imams have called for holy war and many residents have suspected terror ties, to continue business as usual.
A police assessment of Dearborn after 9/11 called it a “major financial support center” and “recruiting area” for international terror. This, along with the myriad instances of open support for terrorism after the Oct. 7 massacre, should raise ample red flags. Officials need to understand that a crackdown is necessary.
Many foreign radicals in Dearborn and beyond who celebrate death and cheer for our enemies are not American citizens. Therefore, like the UAE student who flouted laws in his keffiyeh, they should be deported.
In fact, deporting violent radicals with provable ties to terror simply requires enforcing American laws that are already on the books. Title 8 of the U.S. code, section 1182, deems any alien who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse a terrorist organization” inadmissible.
This rule should be particularly applied to foreign students, who gladly accept visas and avail themselves of the American education system while bringing the Islamist prejudices and anti-American fervor of their home countries onto campus.
Many of the current campus protest leaders are foreign students on limited educational visas. There are existing laws that apply to them too, namely the Immigrant Nationality Act, which allows student visas to be revoked even before terror support is discovered.
Of course, deporting terror supporters would require a government that sees these hotbeds of hate as the national security threat they are and is committed to enforcing the laws that protect our country.
Leading Republican senators like Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio have called for these laws to be enforced since October, but they have been met with a federal government and Department of Homeland Security hellbent on open borders and opposed to implementing policies meant to keep our citizens safe.
Americans racking their brains in shock and horror at how our streets and classrooms have devolved into Hamas-loving hotbeds should take a long look at this ineffectual government and its lackadaisical approach to terrorism.
Fortunately, the presidential election is rapidly approaching and with it comes an opportunity to wise up and do something about the radical Islamic threat. The UAE offers a model of a country where, informed by Middle Eastern history and reality, radical Islamic terrorism is taken seriously and combatted swiftly. It is a country where vocal support for radical groups is treated as a harbinger of violence that must be prosecuted rather than a feature of “diversity” to be waved aside.
Our current government has shown a negligible desire to enforce its own laws and take this peril seriously. Our cities and campuses have paid the price in antisemitism and unrest. Americans—and Europeans—who worry about their own cities could draw a few insights from a place where laws are enforced and terror, in its many forms, is treated as an existential danger.