(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom are good friends and like all good friends we don't have to see eye to eye on every issue. Both our nations' laws and institutions are underpinned by values and beliefs - intangible, unquantifiable but critical for stability and progress.
Most important of all is a respect for people's freedom to live life as they wish: in short, tolerance. Cultures that defend tolerance have a strong sense of what should not be tolerated: namely, those who preach that people should be persecuted because of their beliefs.
In the UAE this tolerance is under threat from a group calling itself al-Islah, who shelter under the Muslim Brotherhood's umbrella. In English, al-Islah argues for democracy; in Arabic it reveals its true agenda - driving religious minorities from the Arabian Peninsula, shutting churches and temples, reversing women's rights and introducing its own interpretation of Islamic law. Far from defending human rights, it wants to trample all over them.
Such intolerance does not merely grate with Emirati culture; it threatens to undermine it. More than seven million expatriates live in the UAE (including more than 100,000 Britons). Christians, Hindus and other religions practise freely here. The UAE is first among all Arab states in the UN Human Development Index. Seventy per cent of our graduates are women, as are four government ministers.
Such policies make us a target for extremists, a threat we take seriously. For ten years our troops have been fighting alongside British forces in Afghanistan; our air force helped Nato to enforce the no-fly zone in Libya; and we work with other nations to defeat terrorists who bomb and maim, besmirching the name of Islam. The UAE helped bring Malala, the brave girl shot by the Taleban, for medical care in Birmingham because we laud every girl's right to education.
The UAE does not have a multiparty system like the UK, yet the electorate for our Federal National Council was greatly enlarged last year, with more than one third of adults having the right to vote. We are committed to developing this further. However, our pace must be gradual. When we look around our region, or consider challenges created by the Arab Spring, we struggle to identify a political model that does not create societies divided by tribe, clan and sectarian group.
In challenging times, we must stand shoulder to shoulder against the shrill voices of violent extremists and ensure openness and tolerance prevails. Our political institutions may be different but many of our deepest values are truly shared, and we need to defend them together.
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