Dubai's ruler accused of slavery

The case against Dubai's ruler was filed in Miami where he has property

Dubai's ruler has been accused of enslaving thousands of youngchildren for camel races in a class-action lawsuit filed in the US.

The action claims Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum,his brother Hamdam and 500 others are responsible for abducting andtrafficking the children.

It was filed on behalf of six unidentified parents and thousands of unnamed children.

There has been no comment on the action from the accused.

The children were said to be from Bangladesh, Sudan and southern Asia.

Once in Dubai, it is claimed that the children - some ofthem as young as two - were kept in poor conditions, starved (so as tokeep their weight down), abused and forced to take part in a dangeroussport.

The use of child camel jockeys is banned in Dubai

The case was filed in Miami where Sheikh Mohammed and his brother, Sheikh Hamdam bin Rashid al-Maktoum, have property.

The two, along with the other 500 defendants who the suit says are as yet unknown, face nine counts.

They include engaging in slavery, conspiring to engagein slavery, engaging in or facilitating child labour, battery, assault,infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death.

The use of child camel jockeys was banned in Dubai 13 years ago.

• 1) Children ride horses every where in the world ... they join horse riding clubs to enjoy riding horses! In the Arab world, children ride horses as well and also they ride camels, and they enjoy it just as much ... it is a sport our children have enjoyed throughout our history and this may not be obvious to people who do not understand the relation between the Arab and his camel.


• 2) Those children who ride camels are not brought to Dubai as slaves or whatever ... they are mostly local children and they are mostly Arab boys ... who love to do what their fathers and grandfathers have always enjoyed.


• 3) Dubai and the UAE have and enforce very strict law and legal procedures against human trafficking, more so than most other countries in the world.


• 4) It is just absurd that someone will say such nonsense without any respect to the intelligence of public opinion as if people do not think ... it should be only absurd that someone forced to ride can win a race ! Or are these races supposed to be something else ?


• 5) The ruler of Dubai , among all people, is well known for being a kind, wise, honest, and noble man, not at all the type of man who would allow the abuse of anything, and especially not children ! (yes I respect this man, and very much so, too!)


• 6) Islam asks muslims to be kind to animals , and Arabs are particularly fond of their camels and horses. It is not even thinkable for a normal Arab ,to allow his horse or camel to be abused, abusing the jokey is actually an abuse to the horse or the camel, this is an example of one aspect of Arab civilization that westerners usually fail to understand.


• 7) The picture of the children riding camels in the BBC article above is actually a picture of one child riding a camel, and the other that looks like a child is actually a ROBOT camel jockey! (yes it is actually a robot designed and manufactured here in the UAE)

¶ Friday, September 29, 2006