'We are foreigners in a strange land'

THIS is no longer just about a dozen cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. This is now a howl of rage and frustration from a Muslim population which clings to a sense of grievance like a life raft. This is now about - as always in this part of the world Israel and Palestine - the loss of Muslim identity, its replacement by Western culture and above all, it's about Iraq.

Here in Dubai, there are around 140 nationalities and, generally, we all rub along fine. Sure, the Arabs think we Westerners are promiscuous drunks; in return we label them arrogant, lazy, and the world's worst drivers. The Asian population, numerically the biggest group here, gets abuse from both sides.

But ordinarily, this childish name-calling is nothing more than that: sticks and stones. In two years here I cannot recall a racial or religiously motivated attack of any kind - not bad for a city of 1.4m people.

So when, as happened this morning, the Danish government issues a list of 14 Muslim countries its nationals should avoid, and which includes the United Arab Emirates (Dubai is one of seven of those emirates), we sit up and take notice.

Danes here are sitting tight, staying away from work, getting friends to do the shopping, keeping a low profile. The French are doing the same.

The Western population has been watching all week for our 'national' media to print the cartoons. When Die Welt and Corriera della Sera did it last week, the Germans and Italians drew a sharp intake of breath.

On Friday the phone at our villa rang hot with calls from worried Brits after the BBC and ITV briefly broadcast the offending cartoons. Were we OK? Were we planning to leave?

From afar, that might seem like an astonishing over reaction. True, apart from a lot of angry telephone calls, a bit of carping in the supermarket and hundreds of bitter letters to the English language newspaper I edit, the locals here have been restrained.

(The most noticeable effect, thanks to a government boycott of Danish goods, has been a shortage of Lurpak. Honestly. And a company called Fererro has launched a frenzied advertising campaign underlining that, contrary to rumour, it is NOT Danish.)

But remember that Beirut and Damascus are a short hop from here. Remember that the UAE has an open border with Saudi Arabia, and that the fundamentalist Wahabi region which produced Osama bin Laden is no more than half a day's drive away.

The UAE federal government has made no comment about the cartoons so far. This is a story that is being driven from the privately-run mosques which are on every street corner.

Do not underestimate the anger of the Muslims. Of course, some extremists are manipulating a willing, often young male, audience. Much of what you have seen on TV over the weekend is driven by a small clique of fundamentalists, often sanctioned by states like Syria. But even normally moderate, Western-educated Muslim friends and colleagues in such a comparatively tolerant place as Dubai cannot conceal their contempt for our defence of the cartoons' publication.

Their first objection is religious. Islam runs as a thread through every aspect of Muslim life to an extent that modern, secular Britons can barely grasp.

My Muslim friends and colleagues believe in Allah, the almighty, the one true God. They live their lives by his codes and the words of his prophet, Mohammed. They fear the power of Allah as a literal truth. The depiction of Mohammed is sacrilegious; cartoons of him with a bomb in his turban are offensive beyond description.

The repeated publication of the cartoons is viewed as a deliberate, calculated snub to the Muslim world. Given what else they think the West has done to them, they are enraged. Many, even moderate Muslims, believe the West is out to get them, to wipe them from the face of the earth. Dismiss that as paranoia if you like, but it is a fact of life here.

Their second objection is to our defence of Western-style democracy and the freedom of speech.

There is no such thing here. The media is routinely censored, as is the Internet. But locals see nothing wrong in that. They have no culture of a free press, and see no need for one. Western claims to the moral high ground on human rights are dismissed. Where, they have asked me, were the human rights of Muslims in the last few days? Or in Palestine? Or, as always, in Iraq?

Equally, they regard our claims that the West values free speech as laughable. And this is where, from a Western perspective, it gets a little awkward.

Many Muslims, for example, think the Jewish Holocaust is a lie. They were puzzled by the West's reaction to the claim by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month that the Holocaust was "a myth" because that is what a lot of Muslim countries teach their children as official history. Syria and Egypt, for example, have published pamphlets demolishing the so-called Holocaust 'lie'.

Muslim colleagues see British historian David Irving in an Austrian prison cell, not so much, in their view, for denying the Holocaust but for disputing the extent of it. Where is your precious freedom of speech now, they taunt?

Yes, I know it's offensive, but they have a cultural certainty that the Jewish genocide never happened or was blown out of all proportion.

Then they ask me why it is that Britain's blasphemy laws cover the likes of Jews and Hindus but not Muslims?

And when I mention that free speech plays a vital role in any civilised democracy, they simply mock. They don't think much of our version of democracy, claiming that our system allowed us to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq - based on lies - and that the UK then re-elected the Prime Minister responsible. Mockery. It's the only word for it.

It is noticeable how the anger is growing, not dissipating as the embassies and the flags burn. It's noticeable how many more Muslims today, compared to last week, are bandying around phrases like "clash of civilisations."

But even in a liberal, cosmopolitan city like Dubai, which more than 75,000 British people call home, the feeling that we are foreigners in a strange land has never been stronger. And how this situation will resolve itself, none of us can confidently say.

* Tony Metcalf is a former journalist with The Northern Echo and now lives and works in Dubai.

How a series of cartoons provoked outrage

FLEMMING Rose, the arts editor of the Danish national newspaper Jyllands-Posten, decided that publishing a page of cartoons - 12 in total - of the prophet Mohammed would provoke a debate on multiculturalism. They were published on September 30 last year, and included one showing the prophet with a bomb in his turban.

The cartoons offended because they breached the Islamic prohibition of representations of Mohammed and because they depicted the prophet as a man of terror and violence when he is deemed to be a man of peace.

The initial publication brought a few angry letters, but no demonstrations. But when, in mid-October, two of the artists received death threats, it was widely reported and the debate rekindled.

It was followed by a demonstration in Denmark by 5,000 Muslims. On January 10 a Norwegian Christian publication, Magazinet, published a selection of the cartoons.

The editor of the Jyllands-Posten meanwhile apologised for printing them, inciting the German paper Die Welt to run them in a bid to stand up for freedom of expression, which was quickly followed by publication in the French paper France Soir.

Initially, Gaza and the West Bank saw the biggest protests, before Muslims took to the streets across the world, leaving four dead and Danish embassies burned to the ground.

Protestors in London were seen waving placards threatening a repeat of the September 11 and July 7 attacks.

By yesterday, the flames were still being fanned.