DUBAI (Reuters) – State security men on Sunday detained an Islamist activist who had criticized the United Arab Emirates’ security apparatus, his son said, amid a crackdown on Islamists in the Gulf Arab country.
Ten plain-clothes men, who identified themselves as security officials, arrived at a mosque in the northern emirate of Ras al-Khaimah after dawn prayers and took Saleh al-Dhufairi, the general manager of an Islamist organization, the Holy Koran Foundation, his son told Reuters.
“They ran into the mosque and took my father to the car outside. I asked them who they were and one said they were police, while another said they were from the state security but they had no arrest warrants and didn’t show us any identification,” Hassan al-Dhufairi said.
“They took him with them and I tried to open the door of the car but it was locked and they drove away, we don’t know where they took my father,” he said.
There was no official comment and it was not clear who had detained Dhufairi.
A spokesman for Ras al-Khaimah police said he was not aware of any arrest. “We have no details on this case. We are not involved,” he told Reuters.
The UAE has weathered popular uprisings that have toppled four Arab heads of state since last year, thanks in part to its cradle-to-grave welfare system, but it has shown little tolerance towards dissent at home.
The top oil exporter is concerned that the rise of Islamists in other Arab countries could embolden its own Islamists.
Ras al-Khaimah, one of the poorer emirates of the seven-member UAE federation that includes business hub Dubai and oil-exporter Abu Dhabi, has been a source of occasional unrest and is scene to growing Islamist sentiment.
The closest emirate to Iran, Ras al-Khaimah sits near the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s traded oil passes. Some analysts point to the emirate, which produced one of the September 11 hijackers, as a scene of growing Islamism, although most say security risks are exaggerated.
In March, Dhufairi was detained for “provoking strife” after criticizing the state security services on Twitter for interfering in the lives of citizens.
His son said that he was questioned by the state security’s prosecution department in Abu Dhabi last week on issues related to his previous detention, but was let go.
Dhufairi’s arrest came a few days after reports that Sheikh Sultan al-Qassimi, a cousin of the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah and head of the Islamist al-Islah (Reform) group, was taken from his house by armed men and has since been held at the ruler’s palace.
The UAE revoked the citizenship of six Islamists it described as posing a threat to national security. Some of the men demanded greater power for the Federal National Council, an elected body that advises the federal government in Abu Dhabi.
The six men, all members of al-Islah, were detained earlier this month after refusing to sign a declaration to seek a new nationality within two weeks.
(Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Raissa Kasolowsky)
