Word: arabization
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...that easily dwarfs Dubai's gleaming new 160-story skyscraper. In the wake of the 2008 global financial meltdown, Sheik Mohammed repeatedly waved off predictions of Dubai's demise, staunchly defended his economic development model and dismissed Western media criticism as a bigoted slur on an Arab success story. "I can safely say that we have succeeded in containing the risks of the global financial crisis in record time," he said last April. Indeed, even as the property bubble was bursting and throwing thousands out of work in his realm a year ago, Dubai played host to probably the biggest...
...remarkable accomplishments - or ignore the fact that only an ambitious dreamer could have made them happen. In the 1980s, when Dubai's neighbors were either hibernating behind a curtain of oil wealth or dabbling, sometimes disastrously, in Middle East politics, Sheik Mohammed began transforming oil-poor Dubai from an Arab backwater into a global city. Within a decade Dubai had a world-class air carrier in Emirates Airlines and a glamorous, iconic "seven-star" hotel, the Burj al-Arab, as high as the Eiffel Tower. Within another decade, Dubai had become truly a global hub - the largest international financial center...
...beginning," Sheik Mohammed once told an Arab journalist, "they said that Dubai was crazy." Certainly few Arab leaders have demonstrated such a relentless drive to succeed. He imagined Dubai as a great city from Islam's rich heritage, a Baghdad or a Cordoba. His immense appetite for work is matched by a passion for play. He is a world-class thoroughbred racer and breeder and, at 62, he remains a celebrated equestrian who engages in arduous endurance races across hundreds of miles of terrain. Doubtless it takes a politician of supreme self-confidence not only to write Arabic poetry...
...Dubai's ruler in 2006 upon the death of a brother, he has been the driving force behind the emirate for three decades. Of equal importance, his ambition and competence have made him a leading figure - presently serving as Vice President, Prime Minister and Defense Minister - in the United Arab Emirates, the country created by a confederation of seven Arab sheikdoms in 1971. No leader in the U.A.E., or perhaps in the Arab world at large, can rival Sheik Mohammed's global connections in politics and business...
...Such comments echo those heard in 2007 after Iran's Revolutionary Guards detained 15 U.K. servicemen in the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway that runs between Iran and Iraq. Back then, Tehran accused the Brits of trespassing in its waters. (London insisted the personnel had been patrolling Iraqi seas.) The 15 were pardoned and released by Ahmadinejad after being held for two weeks. Three years earlier, eight British servicemen snatched in the same area were also accused of trespassing. In both cases, the British military personnel were paraded on Iranian television. "Whether it's premeditated or the actions...