In a recent development, which has triggered debates in political and human rights domains, the United Arab Emirates has announced detention of an Egyptian poet and opponents Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Earlier on Thursday, the United Arab Emirates’ official news agency Wam said Abdul Rahman was arrested immediately upon entering the UAE from Lebanon. This particular news has escalated concerns of his possible deportation to UAE, which has in the past raised quite a lot of concern among human rights activists working to avoid such cases.
The first part ends on Abdul Rahman leaving Lebanon where he used to live. It simply climaxed when he was detained as he was arriving to the UAE. Not many details are disclosed but ripples escalated on Wednesday when an aircraft of RoyalJet touched down in the Beirut capital. Serbia had, in 2022, accused RoyalJet, the very airline, of complicity in the unlawful extradition of a dissident from Bahrain.
Besides the general confusion surrounding the case of Abdul Rahman, it became worse when people close to him, particularly his legal counsel in Lebanon are said to have severally disappeared. This has left supporters and activists on the edge as they come out to fight for the poet as he might be extradited any time.
Abdul Rahman is a 55-year-old Egyptian Turkish nationality who is not only a writer but also a participant in the political processes of the Middle East during the past few decades. A radical promoter of democracy he contributed to the process that led to the famous Egyptian revolt of 2011 that put an end to former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Adding to his political resume, Abdul Rahman played a pivotal role in the presidential campaign of Mohammed el-Baradei, the ex-IAEA chief who vied for Egypt’s presidency in the post-revolution landscape.
The poet’s arrest in Lebanon on December 28 followed his participation in celebratory gatherings marking the anticipated fall of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Abdul Rahman had shared a video online, resonating on the platform X, expressing his aspirations for a future unfettered by the influences of Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
This seems to have sparked a diplomatic tug-of-war, with both the UAE and Egypt submitting extradition requests to Lebanon. Significantly, Lebanese authorities have so far only acted on the request from Emiratis. The story of Abdul Rahman is set against the backdrop of his being from a strong lineage; his father, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who died in Qatar in 2022, stood reputedly as a giant in Islamic scholarship. His influence seeped deep into the mainstream of the opposition in Egypt-the Muslim Brotherhood, now branded under the label of a terrorist organization by the cormorant an president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Although Yusuf al-Qaradawi chose to keep distance from formal political activities inside of Egypt, his ideology and teachings were very instrumental in calculating the direction and values of the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, his thoughts and works have constantly been at the very center of whoever handles the discourses on the major global affairs concerning the Islamic world.
The news of Abdul Rahman being in detention reverberates across international circles and tends to be a sharp reminder of the fact that art, politics, and human rights are often at dangerous crossroads. World activists and supporters continue defending his rights and following every aspect of his legal status and safety since everything seems so fluid at this time with all eyes on the way in which regional actors navigate this sensitive and very high-profile case.
