Political influencers and “journalists” from the United Arab Emirates rarely disagree with one another. They often speak in unison, say the exact same things, and are never critical of their leaders. More often than not, if the duck quacks and sounds like a propogandist, it’s most probably a propogandist.
The rulers of the United Arab Emirates maintain a stable of online political influencers who routinely promote the UAE’s foreign-policy talking points. Many appear in cringe-worthy, overproduced content pushing these lines, yet they rarely disclose who funds the productions—or their own salaries.
The latest talking-point that these influencers have been promoting is “Ban the Muslim Brotherhood”. This is part of the UAE’s foreign policy talking point that it has been promoting for more than decade that the UAE is an international advocate against Muslim terrorism. Supposedly, according to the government of the UAE and its political influencers, there is more Islamic extremism in the West than in the “Middle East” (the Near East). They have been pushing this ridiculous talking for more than a decade and even before ISIS came along. The far-right in Europe is amazed by this supposedly bold and courageous position, which is nothing than less stupid propaganda by an actual theocratic state that applies Sharia Law.
The UAE has been reciting this gimmick about anti-Islamic terrorism to suit its foreign policy objectives as it selectively choses who to support and condemn according to its opportunistic and strategic interests. By taking on the mantra of Islamic moderates, despite not being secular themselves, they can align themselves with Israel and be first with trade among many entities in the West among their Arab counterparts. The UAE has been the major advocate for the Abraham Accords which seek the normalisation of ties with Israel between Arab and other regional countries.
The individual in the featured image is Amjad Taha – an Emirati political influencer and founder of the Sharaka Institute: an NGO that advocates for the Abraham Accords. Amjad Taha has becoem a hero of the British far-right for speaking against Islamic terrorism. In his condescending recitals, he is also including Sudan.
His institute does not disclose its funding but it does have operations and registration in Israel. Beyond its public activities that supposedly promote multiculturalism and peace, Amjad Taha’s institute is a tool that seeks to legitimise the foreign policy and talking points of the UAE. Beneath its peaceful rhetoric against Islamist terrorism, the UAE pursues a policy of terrorism and imperialism that is currently being applied to Sudan. By presenting itself as a peace advocate on one side, the UAE seeks to get away with war crimes and genocide on the other side of the Red Sea.
As part of its propaganda campaign the “Islamic terrorism”, the UAE is associating Islamic extremism and the Muslim Brotherhood with the government of Sudan, which it describes as the “Authority of Port Sudan” as a delegitimising tactic. The UAE is on a very intensive campaign to vilify and associate the government of Sudan and its official army with terrorism and terrorist groups, because the UAE itself is funding and arming the genocidal and terrorist group in Sudan which is fighting the government, the Rapid Support Forces. The UAE’s support for the RSF isn’t born out of religious, spiritual or ideological concerns. Composed chiefly of Arab militias from western Sudan, the RSF (originally the Janjaweed) were responsible for the massacres in Darfur and have been responsible for the worst war crimes and human rights abuses in Africa since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
The UAE’s support for the RSF is neither drawn from a concern for the lives of Arabs: the UAE is currently more concerned with its gimmicks than Arab lives in Gaza. The UAE’s support for the RSF is driven by opportunistic and strategic reasons as they serve as the UAE’s military proxy in Sudan. The UAE has its sights over Sudan for its gold and its access to the Red Sea and it is making very coordinated and consistent efforts to destabilise and defeat the government of Sudan militarily. The Sudanese government has declared the UAE as an aggressor state. The Emirati sheikh that seems mostly involved seems to be Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
The UAE is now trying to deflect and blame all the war crimes committed by the RSF, on which there is a tremendous amount of evidence, onto the Sudanese Army. All the while the UAE is making these accusations, the RSF are deliberately starving the capital city of North Darfur, Al-Fashir, and regularly publicising their war crimes to the whole world. Yet despite the RSF’s blatant and public disregard for civilian life, the US has chosen to ignore the fact that this genocidal group is armed by the UAE, and has instead acknowledged some of the accusations made by the UAE against the Sudanese government following a large weapons deal.
The UAE is betting that Sudan’s isolation and absence from the mainstream press will enable it to convince the world of its narrative. So far, they only seem to have convinced the far-right, which makes the alignment consistent with many of the values they share between them.
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