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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A senior Emirati official is warning that demonstrations in Europe have crossed a line from political expression into a national security threat, arguing that extremism must be confronted before it turns violent.
“You can go demonstrate, talk, give a speech, but what [we] saw in the street in 11 cities in Europe is not freedom of speech. It is a threat to national security,” Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council, told Digital in an exclusive interview.
The remarks come against a wider European debate over radicalization. On Nov. 3, Europol reported that authorities from 16 countries had referred more than 9,000 links to extremist and terrorist material appearing across 47 social media and gaming platforms. The operation targeted online role-playing content promoting jihadist, far-right, far-left and anarchist violence, including material that could draw minors toward extremist networks.
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A car burns as demonstrators look on during a nationwide day of strikes and protests over wages, the cost of living and public services, called by French labor unions and joined by high school and university students calling for better education conditions, in Lyon, France, on Nov. 5, 2026. (Reuters)
What makes the UAE’s response distinctive, officials and experts argue, is its belief that the struggle against extremism begins long before police make an arrest — in classrooms, families and the way people of different backgrounds learn to live together.
“The root is extremism, not violent extremism. … In our school system, we promote coexistence. We promote the values that bring us together, regardless of our religion, our nationality, our ethnic [background], our color. … We have to learn how to live with our differences and to accept everyone as they are,” Al Nuaimi said.
Preventing extremism before violence
At Hedayah, the Abu Dhabi-based International Center of Excellence for Countering Extremism and Violent Extremism, Digital spoke with Maqsoud Kruse, chairman of the center’s International Steering Board and the UAE foreign minister’s envoy for countering extremism and terrorism.
Kruse, an organizational psychologist who helped establish Hedayah in 2012, described radicalization as a process that can begin with ideas, develop through emotional responses and, in some cases, lead to violent behavior. Understanding that progression, he argued, creates opportunities to intervene long before violence occurs.
“When we talk about countering extremism and terrorism, we understand and realize that no one country, no one institution, no one individual can deal with this on their own,” Kruse told Digital. “We need that international collaboration, that networking, that bridging, where everyone is part of the solution.”
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Maqsoud Kruse, chairman of Hedayah’s International Steering Board and the UAE foreign minister’s envoy for countering extremism and terrorism, speaks with Digital in Abu Dhabi about preventing radicalization through education, psychology and international cooperation. (Efrat Lachter/ Digital)
Within the UAE, he explained, the emphasis is on an integrated approach that brings together psychology, sociology, education and economics rather than treating extremism solely as a security problem.
“That integrated approach means we need to shift from a problem-focused approach to a solution based approach where we create patterns of hope,” he said.
The distinction is central to the UAE’s tolerance strategy: rather than waiting until extremist beliefs turn into violence, Kruse argues that societies must invest in education, community engagement and other preventive measures that address the underlying drivers of radicalization.
He also challenged the assumption that poverty alone drives extremism. Wealthy, educated individuals can embrace extremist ideologies, while millions of people living in hardship never do. Kruse pointed to the experiences of former extremists who abandoned radical movements, arguing that their stories demonstrate the possibilities for rehabilitation and reintegration.
The institution he leads works with governments, researchers and civil society on prevention programs. Kruse’s argument is not that education replaces counterterrorism operations, but that security alone cannot address the ideas and human vulnerabilities that recruiters exploit, and a holistic approach is needed.
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U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Yousif Al Obaidli, director of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, as he tours the mosque grounds in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 15, 2025. (Brian Snyder/ Reuters)
Messages of coexistence at the Grand Mosque
That philosophy becomes visible in a very different setting across Abu Dhabi: the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
During a visit to the sprawling white-marble landmark, Digital passed displays on the approach to the prayer halls emphasizing tolerance, mutual respect and the legacy of the UAE’s founding president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The messages are difficult to separate from the architecture: bright courtyards, floral inlays and rows of colonnades that draw visitors toward one of the country’s most recognizable religious sites.
The mosque, with its 82 domes and architectural influences from across the Islamic world, functions as a place of worship and a destination for visitors interested in the country’s religious and cultural traditions.
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A sign marking the Multifaith Gallery at the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where exhibits explore the shared history and heritage of different religious communities. (Efrat Lachter/ Digital)
The vision behind the displays predates the UAE’s opening to Israel. Sheikh Zayed helped establish the federation in 1971, and the leadership has long presented tolerance as a central part of national identity. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre points to religious accommodation and the importance of welcoming people from different cultures as elements of his legacy.
The policy became more formal over time. In 2015, the UAE adopted legislation against discrimination and religious hatred. In 2016, it appointed a minister of state for tolerance and launched a national tolerance program. The government updated its legal framework in 2023 to address discrimination, hatred and extremism.
Today, the UAE government says the country is home to more than 200 nationalities, a scale of diversity that creates an everyday test of how different cultures and faiths share public space.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain’s Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan join President Trump for the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 15, 2020, in Washington. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
From interfaith dialogue to the Abraham Accords
The UAE has also tried to extend that vision beyond its borders. In February 2019, Pope Francis and Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, signed the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi, calling for dialogue and peaceful coexistence.
Four years later, the country inaugurated the Abrahamic Family House on Saadiyat Island. Its mosque, church and synagogue occupy separate but equally prominent buildings linked by common spaces intended for learning and conversation.
During Digital’s visit to the UAE, the Abrahamic Family House was temporarily closed. Emirati officials told Digital that the closure followed an Iranian attempt to target the interfaith complex during the war.
In Dubai, Mohammed Baharoon, director general of the B’huth research center, argued that the Emirates’ commitment to tolerance cannot simply be credited to oil wealth.
“So it is will, not wealth. It’s vision, views, and respect to people,” Baharoon told Digital, describing what he sees as a deliberate policy decision to attract people from different countries and give them a stake in the UAE’s development.
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Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori (right), founder of Dubai’s Crossroads of Civilizations Museum, pictured with a rabbi. Al Mansoori established one of the Arab world’s first permanent Holocaust memorial exhibitions, promoting interfaith understanding and coexistence. ( Digital)
For Baharoon, the Abraham Accords, brokered during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2020, reflected the same thinking on a regional scale. The agreement normalized relations between the UAE and Israel, but he said its ambition went beyond opening embassies.
“The Abrahamic Accords are not just normalization,” he explained, in his view, the aim was to challenge a pattern in which the Israeli-Palestinian dispute had increasingly been framed as a confrontation between entire religions and peoples. Diplomatic recognition, he argued, matters only if it creates opportunities for relationships that survive disagreements between governments.
Al Nuaimi similarly described the accords as an investment in people rather than a bet on any particular Israeli leadership.
“We believe in people-to-people diplomacy. We believe that we have to work on the people, build bridges with the people. … Regardless of the government that will be in charge in Israel, … the only solution is to start working on a permanent solution for both sides, where the Israelis and the Palestinians will accept to live as neighbors, will respect each other, [and] will care about the future of each other.”
He argued that maintaining trust with Israel has also helped the UAE provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
“Through that trust, we were able to go and help the Palestinians in Gaza. … We have three hospitals, eight bakeries, and we did the infrastructure for the water, and many facilities. … It’s because of this relationship with the Israelis.”
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A sign marking the “Tolerance Path” at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The visitor experience highlights the country’s founding president’s vision of religious tolerance, mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. (Efrat Lachter/ Digital)
The limits — and the test — of tolerance
There is a tension in the Emirati model. Cultural and religious coexistence does not mean the same freedom to challenge the government. Freedom House’s 2026 assessment describes a political system in which parties are banned and freedom of expression and assembly are sharply restricted. Its civil liberties record complicates any suggestion that the UAE’s system can be transplanted wholesale into European democracies.
Still, during reporting in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the emphasis on coexistence appeared in settings as varied as the Grand Mosque’s visitor displays, discussions with counter-extremism specialists and the country’s effort to sustain ties with Israel while supporting Palestinians.
On Saadiyat Island, the temporarily closed Abrahamic Family House offers a stark image of the challenge. Three places of worship were built to stand beside one another, yet the wider regional conflict has disrupted the setting in which they were intended to bring people together.
For Kruse, the answer begins with preventing radicalization at its earliest stages. For Baharoon, it requires political will rather than wealth alone. And for Al Nuaimi, whose warning to Europe opened the debate, it means teaching coexistence at home while seeking a diplomatic future in the region.
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A plume of smoke rises from the Zayed Port following a reported Iranian strike in Abu Dhabi on March 1, 2026. Iran’s retaliatory missile and drone campaign in the Gulf has killed three people and wounded 58 in the United Arab Emirates since it began, Emirati authorities said on March 1, the day after the US and Israel launched a nationwaide attack on Iran killing its supreme leader. (Ryan Lim / AFP via Getty Images)
Whether those ambitions can outlast the pressures of war — or travel beyond the UAE — remains the question.
