Transcript [00:00] Everybody, there's a story going on [00:01] right now in the UAE [00:04] that is that I want to bring to your [00:06] attention. It's not a simple story with [00:08] a clear villain and a clear [00:10] victim, [00:12] but it's one of these side stories that [00:14] we have to keep an eye on and one of the [00:15] things I've been trying to do on this [00:16] channel from the beginning is keep track [00:18] of all the different stories surrounding [00:20] the Iran war. And this is a story about [00:23] mass deportations [00:25] that are taking place in uh in in the [00:29] UAE right now or from the UAE of [00:31] Pakistanis. Here, let's let this [00:33] this gentleman introduce the story for [00:35] us. [00:36] Thousands of Pakistani men and women are [00:38] being deported from UAE for no reason [00:40] and no crime committed. The UAE that was [00:42] built by the blood and sweat of [00:43] Pakistanis, today they decided to just [00:46] throw them out for no reason at all. [00:47] Multiple people have reported how they [00:49] were just called from work one day, [00:50] taken into a detention center. A lot of [00:53] them were stripped naked as well and [00:55] then just sent back to Pakistan for no [00:57] reason. They never posted about the war [00:59] or anything against UAE. The mask of the [01:01] fascist state of UAE is off now. So, if [01:04] you are a person who was deported from [01:05] UAE for no reason at all, share your [01:07] story in the comments. [01:12] Okay. [01:13] Thousands of Pakistani So, that's that [01:15] guy. [01:16] So, let me explain what's going on here. [01:17] There's a story I just put up on the [01:19] screen which you can see. [01:21] And [01:22] it's from New Lines Magazine, which is a [01:25] left-center a center-left publication. [01:27] It was just published a few days ago and [01:29] the headline as you see is Pakistani [01:31] nationals allege arbitrary detention and [01:33] deportation from UAE. It's a long read. [01:35] I'm not going to go through it. I'm not [01:37] going to read through the whole article, [01:38] but I want to share a few details from [01:40] it and then explain what I think this is [01:41] really about. Here's what's happening. [01:43] Since the Iran war, the UAE has been [01:45] detaining and deporting Pakistani [01:48] nationals. According to a senior [01:49] Pakistani Shiite cleric quoted here, [01:53] roughly 5,000 families, that's about [01:55] 15,000 individuals have already been [01:57] sent back to Pakistan. [02:00] And the common thread [02:02] is that the people being targeted are [02:03] Shiite Muslims. So, how are they being [02:05] identified? The article reports that [02:07] according to multiple accounts, [02:10] Shiite identity is being determined [02:12] through biometric data, fingerprint [02:14] scans collected at Shiite mosques and [02:16] houses of worship. Names are also a [02:19] factor, names like Ali, Hassan, and [02:21] Hussein, which are names that are common [02:23] among Shiite Muslims. [02:25] Uh the these are all ways of flagging [02:27] people in the system. [02:30] And here's one exchange from the article [02:31] that illustrates how this is playing out [02:33] on the ground. You have It talks about a [02:35] Pakistani driver named Zahir Khan [02:38] and he was approached by plainclothes [02:40] officers at the Mall of the Emirates [02:42] while depositing cash. They took his ID [02:45] and they took his phone and on and they [02:46] took him to the police station. On the [02:47] way to the police station, they asked [02:49] him, "Are you Shiite or Sunni?" [02:51] And he said that he was Shiite and the [02:53] response according to the article was, [02:55] "That clarifies things." They also asked [02:57] him if he'd heard about other people [02:58] being deported. He said yes. [03:01] There was no charges. There was no legal [03:02] process. [03:04] Uh he was [03:05] he was transferred between different [03:06] detention facilities and then he was put [03:08] on a plane. [03:09] Now, before I explain why this is [03:10] happening, I want to be clear about what [03:12] I'm doing here and what I'm not doing [03:13] here. I'm not here to render a verdict [03:16] on what the UAE is doing. I'm not here [03:18] to make you feel a particular way about [03:19] any of the parties in the story. [03:22] All I'm trying to do here is help you [03:23] understand something that is going on, a [03:25] story that is happening in the Middle [03:27] East that is not really being reported [03:29] in the West. [03:30] And also what this moment reveals about [03:33] the broader dynamics [03:35] of the Muslim world, because that's the [03:37] real story here. Okay, so why is this [03:38] happening? [03:39] So, you need to understand two things. [03:40] The Sunni-Shiite divide [03:44] is one and the other is what the Iran [03:46] war did to that Sunni-Shiite divide. The [03:49] Muslim world [03:51] has always had a deep internal fracture [03:53] between Sunnis and Shiites. This goes [03:54] all the way back to the 7th century. [03:57] It's theological in origin, but it [03:59] became geopolitical pretty quickly, [04:02] meaning centuries ago. [04:04] The Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, [04:07] they are Sunni-led. [04:10] Iran is the dominant Shiite power. [04:13] And for decades, it positioned itself as [04:16] the patron and protector of Shiite [04:18] communities throughout the region, [04:19] Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria. And the [04:21] largest Shiite community outside of Iran [04:24] is actually in Pakistan. Even though [04:26] Pakistan's a Sunni country, Pakistan has [04:27] a massive population. [04:29] And this Shiite minority in Pakistan [04:31] happens to be the second largest [04:33] Shiite population in the world outside [04:35] of Iran. [04:37] So, the rivalry between Sunni Gulf power [04:40] and Shiite Iran [04:42] is one of these central organizing [04:44] dynamics of the modern Middle East. [04:47] Into that context comes the current Iran [04:50] war. The United States and Israel attack [04:53] Iran. Khomeini is killed. He's the [04:55] leader of [04:57] ostensibly of many Shiites. I guess [04:59] Shiites who who adhere to [05:01] that ideology, which is many of them. [05:03] And Pakistan, [05:05] which is a majority Sunni country, as I [05:07] said, [05:09] with a Shiite minority, steps in as [05:11] mediator. [05:13] Pakistan hosted the talks between Iran [05:15] and the US. Pakistan helped broker [05:17] this the whatever you call it, the [05:19] ceasefire. They've been in the middle of [05:20] it. [05:21] Now, from the UAE's point of view, [05:24] this was a problem. The Gulf states had [05:26] been hit by the Iranian strikes, UAE [05:29] especially. UAE [05:31] was struck by more missiles and drones [05:34] than any country including Israel, more [05:37] than double [05:38] the strikes of that were that were [05:41] launched at Israel were launched at the [05:42] UAE, a tiny little country. [05:45] And here was Pakistan, historically an [05:47] ally of the UAE, playing peacemaker on [05:50] behalf of or at least alongside Iran, [05:53] the country the UAE considers [05:55] its primary regional threat. And the UAE [05:57] was not happy about this. They wanted [05:59] Pakistan to line up alongside [06:01] the Sunni countries that were under [06:02] attack. [06:04] So, the UAE responded [06:06] first by demanding immediate repayment [06:09] of a $3.5 billion loan to Pakistan. [06:13] And that move was was widely understood [06:16] as a punitive move. [06:18] Uh the Saudis then stepped in and helped [06:20] the Pakistanis pay it. Anyway, and then [06:23] and then came these deportations that [06:24] we're seeing now. That's the next move [06:26] that the UAE has made. Now, here's a key [06:28] analytical point. [06:30] The UAE security services [06:33] have publicly stated that there are [06:36] threats in the UAE from Iranian-linked [06:40] cells operating inside the country. [06:44] They recently arrested 27 people they [06:46] accused of being part of these cells. [06:48] So, in that environment, Shiite identity [06:50] has become in the eyes of UAE security a [06:54] marker of potential loyalty to Iran. [06:58] Okay, not proven loyalty, not [06:59] demonstrated activity, just identity. [07:02] Okay? [07:04] So, I mean, is that a legitimate [07:06] security calculation? That's a debate. [07:08] You can have that debate. [07:11] But here's what's not debatable. [07:13] The vast majority of the Pakistani [07:16] Shiites working in the UAE [07:18] were there. They were laborers, drivers, [07:22] IT workers, professionals at all [07:25] different strata of society. [07:27] They were people that it was not clear [07:29] that there was any political agenda of [07:31] these people. There was no pro-Iran [07:33] demonstrations or anything. [07:35] And the [snorts] article notes that one [07:36] of those deported There was one guy [07:38] deported mentioned in the article was [07:39] actually Sunni. Okay, he had visited a [07:41] Shiite congregation hall once with a [07:45] friend and that apparently flagged him [07:47] and put him on a list and that was [07:48] enough. [07:50] Okay, now [07:52] let's get to something that goes even [07:53] deeper to what this is about and is only [07:56] mentioned in passing in the article that [07:59] I have up on the screen, but I went a [08:01] little further into it. There's the [08:02] economic dimension of this. [08:04] Okay? [08:06] Pakistani workers in the UAE [08:10] send money back home. Those are called [08:12] remittances. They work in Pakistani [08:15] workers work in the UAE, they're sending [08:16] money back to their families in [08:17] Pakistan. [08:19] And they send somewhere Pakistani [08:21] workers in the UAE send somewhere [08:23] between 8 and 9 billion dollars back to [08:26] Pakistan every year. Okay, this isn't [08:28] aid. This is remittances. It's money [08:31] wired home by individuals to their [08:33] families. [08:34] The UAE is consistently Pakistan's [08:36] largest or second largest single source [08:39] of remittances. The other one is always [08:41] Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Saudi [08:43] Arabia, you know, trade being in first [08:45] or second place in the [08:48] in the amount of money being sent back [08:50] to Pakistan as remittances. [08:53] And remittances as a whole are nearly [08:56] 10% of Pakistan's entire GDP. Think [09:01] about that. [09:02] Pakistan is one of the top five [09:04] remittance-receiving countries in the [09:06] world. [09:07] Okay, huge That's huge amount of money. [09:11] So, when you deport thousands of [09:13] Pakistani workers, [09:15] you're [09:17] you're removing a significant flow of [09:19] foreign currency from one of the world's [09:24] most economically fragile countries. [09:26] You're removing that from Pakistan. [09:28] And the article quotes the foreign [09:29] ministry spokesperson in Pakistan who [09:31] was approached for comment and he just [09:33] denied anything was happening and hung [09:35] up the phone cuz it's such a sensitive [09:37] topic. [09:38] That tells you about, you know, how [09:39] cornered they are. They don't even have [09:41] a statement to make. So, what does all [09:43] this add up to? [09:44] Okay, the Iran war didn't just reshape [09:46] the map militarily, right? There's [09:48] there's it's it's had a lot of impact on [09:52] the [09:53] on the on the Muslim world and the [09:55] Sunni-Shiite divide has kind of [09:58] you know, it's often in the background [09:59] and doesn't really have such big [10:00] political implications. But right now, [10:02] that fault line, which again, it's [10:04] always been there, [10:07] and it's always been the undercurrent of [10:09] certain conflicts in the Middle East. [10:10] It's now become [10:12] uh it's it's much more front and center, [10:13] at least in the UAE. So, [10:15] so the UAE is looking at its population [10:18] and saying, "Okay, who's loyal? Who's a [10:20] potential threat?" [10:21] And they also want to punish the [10:22] Pakistanis. [10:24] Uh and they're like, "Wait a second, we [10:25] loaned them $3.5 billion. [10:28] There's 8 to 9 billion dollars of money [10:30] flowing out of the UAE into Pakistan [10:33] every year." [10:34] And they just decided that, [10:37] you know, based on sectarian identity, [10:39] they're going to root out these [10:40] Pakistani Shiites. [10:42] And this has consequences that go far [10:43] beyond uh the individuals being [10:45] deported. It means that the Muslim world [10:46] is fragmenting even more [10:49] along lines that were always there, [10:51] but again, we're kind of latent or [10:53] papered over at times. [10:55] It means that the aftermath of the Iran [10:58] war [10:59] is going to have an impact on some of [11:02] the on the on the relationships between [11:04] these other countries that weren't [11:05] directly involved in the war [11:06] necessarily. Like the UAE and Pakistan [11:09] relationship is obviously being [11:11] being harmed significantly. Um [11:13] and also the relationship between the [11:15] Gulf states and their migrant worker [11:16] populations. [11:18] Um the article ends with a quote from [11:20] one of the deportees. He says, "What [11:23] happened to we are all Emiratis?" That [11:25] was the slogan [11:26] that the UAE had uh had used to unite [11:30] the the residents and the citizens cuz a [11:32] lot of people in UAE are are residents, [11:33] they're not citizens. [11:36] Uh [11:37] but that's where we are. You know, you [11:38] you know, that quote kind of sums it up [11:40] that whatever solidarity there was is [11:42] gone. [11:44] Uh and uh yeah, it's just an interesting [11:47] one of the reverberations, one of the [11:49] side stories [11:50] of this war that I just thought it was [11:52] worth talking about and worth keeping [11:54] you aware of, which is what I try to do [11:57] on this channel. And if you're not [11:58] subscribed, please do. Please share with [12:00] others. 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