London

Jeremy Lawrence
Features Editor, Time Out Dubai
‘Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,’ said George Bush in the aftermath of the shocking events of 9/11, but it’s not always that simple. With its colossal shopping malls shouldering up to equally lavish mosques, Dubai has beaten its own path since that September morning, neither believing in terror nor the war on it. Feature continues

Certainly questions of ideological allegiance don’t seem to be troubling the wealthy tourists sipping cocktails by the pool of Dubai’s seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel and you wouldn’t guess from the luxury lifestyle developments springing up across town that Dubai is slap-bang in the heart of one of the most volatile regions on earth.

But in reality this spectacular growth is inextricably linked to the fallout of 9/11. In the months that followed, Arabs from the Gulf became aware that they – and their wealth – were less welcome in the West. Add to that the fact that oil has risen from US$25 a barrel pre-9/11 to the current figure of US$75, and that’s an awful lot of cash in need of a new home. And they found it amid the emerging skyscrapers and man-made islands of Dubai.

The ruling Al Maktoum family – who are nothing if not decisive – set to work putting this capital to good use, becoming the acceptable, and profitable, face of Islam. Tourists and businessmen from both the Middle East and the West happily enjoy the first twenty first-century city, built in part by the Bin Laden construction company – owned by the family from which Osama is estranged.

That’s not to say all eyes here look to the west. It is often forgotten that two of those involved in the 9/11 attacks were UAE nationals and T-shirts glorifying 9/11 were on sale briefly until the government’s swift intervention. But in general this is a city where realpolitik overrides ideology – US navy ships dock en route to Iraq, while, on the other hand, it is rumoured that Osama Bin Laden was treated at the American Hospital here before becoming the most wanted man on the planet. If the saying, ‘It is better to have a camel on the inside of the tent pissing out, than a camel on the outside pissing in’ wasn’t coined here, then it should have been.

Hence Dubai stands alone, juggling western consumerism and Islamic values, and doing very nicely out of it at that.

After all, business is business.