"A capitulation to a serial human rights abuser," is what a leading scholar on Islamic history is calling President Bush's decision to host Abu Dhabi's crown prince.
Abu Dhabi is one of seven oil-rich states in the United Arab Emirates, an anti-Israel country that President Bush's own State Department has singled out for its horrendous human rights record. The U.A.E. does not even allow Israeli citizens to enter the country. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, says the U.A.E. has never been a true ally of the U.S. "It's a country that the 9/11 hijackers had recourse to as a base of operations as they were planning their attacks," he points out. "The United Arab Emirates is a home to a great many people who hold to the same ideology that motivates Osama bin Laden and all the other jihad terrorists who are determined to destroy the United States...," says Spencer. He says hosting the crown prince sends the message that those human rights violations and terrorist links do not matter. Spencer says Bush gave the impression that he was merely concerned with the Emirati interests that have bought up controlling stakes in U.S. businesses. "[The] Saudis have never been shy about buying up friends...," says the Jihad Watch director. He also says that in hosting the crown prince, the president betrayed his message after 9/11 that "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." Instead, says Spencer, Bush should have confronted the Saudi royalty about the "jihadist" ideology and rampant human rights abuses permeating the U.A.E.
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