Writing in the Times of London, Ross Clark argues that the British couple in the Dubai dock for having sex on the emirate's beach are the sort of jackasses who unwittingly help al Qaeda. Excerpt:
While they deny actually having sex, they admit "kissing and canoodling" and drinking in public - which they must surely have known, and if not they were warned by a policeman that evening - were in themselves imprisonable offences in Dubai.If Palmer and Acors expect me to write an Amnesty International-style letter to the Emir begging for mercy, they can forget it. They haven't just been stupid, they have been thoroughly irresponsible. There is no better recruiting sergeant for al-Qaeda than the sight of Westerners trying to thumb their noses at the laws of Islamic countries.
It would be very easy for Dubai to turn a blind eye to the behaviour of British tourists and expatriates: to say to themselves, we may not like it, but we like the foreign currency too much to discourage these free-spending Westerners.
That is the Faustian pact into which so many holiday destinations around the world have entered, with inevitable results: Westerners start to behave like outlaws, doing things that they wouldn't dare do at home. We've all seen it: the crowds of young men on the Costas who get even more drunk and swear even more loudly than they would on a night out in Basingstoke.
It doesn't end there: just look at Gary Glitter and the other British sex tourists who seek to exploit what they perceive to be a reluctance on the part of courts in the Far East to prosecute foully behaved Westerners.
Totally agree. Throw their butts in jail. What they did is the quintessence of Ugly Americanism (even though they're British): thinking that being from the West gives you the right to go to other people's country's and poop on their rug.
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Public sex might be offensive, but they don't deserve to be jailed. It might be against the law most places, but imposing a three month jail sentence for it is excessive.
I agree that a three month sentence is excessive, although I would be tempted to expel both these people if I were the Dubai authorities.
Bad sexual behavior in public is offensive, but it is not the same as sex tourism. Sex tourism is truly sickening and usually involves sexual exploitation, whereas sex on the beach by two consenting adults is merely obnoxious and rude.
It's interesting to me how the Koran, at least from my limited understanding of it, seems to give an out for Muslims to practice some of the same activities for which they condemn the West.
An act of homosexuality, for instance, apparently has to be witnessed by four Muslim men--hence Admadinejad can claim there is no homosexuality in Iran, at least not any witnessed by four Muslim men. And so on. But there is no arguing the literal text of the Koran.
I agree with most posts here. People shouldn't travel and do this. OK. Now that that is out, I would like to point out that 10% of me is actually GLAD these people did what they did, which is to overtly defy some ridiculous, oppressive law in Dubai. I'm sick of the middle east and its customs, where massive amts of their laws, including this one that these people violated, stem from oppression of women. I'm tired of their culture ransacking Europe (Sharia law is now practiced in British courts, apparently, and I witnessed a few Burkas close to Heathrow airport there which scared children to death and seem to be security matters), while at the same time the Muslim UK citizens demand the same rights as other British citizens as far as govt handouts are concerned (recently a court case involved a women who demanded unemployment benefits but refused to remove her Burka for job interviews). The liberals in the EU have created this monster, but it is something Europeans deal with every day, perhaps they fostered a sense of resentment from the moment they set foot in Dubai. People wonder why an extreme right faction won the recent Austrian elections- I think I know- since I travel to the EU once every 6 weeks.
Ah geez, come on you guys, if you don't like the laws in Dubai (or Kansas, or Outer Nowhere) either don't go there, or obey the laws you don't like, or, as a fallback, if you feel compelled to go there and break the law don't whine about it when they throw you in the pokey. You had notice.
Dubai can run its country however it wants. That's the foundation of national sovereignty. If we think we can mandate, from here, the idea that Dubai has to put up with Western sexual behavior, what's to stop Dubai from mandating that all American women wear the veil? This way lies madness.
Dubai isn't the only place in the world with nice beaches. I'd personally recommend San Clemente, California, where you can do whatever whatever and no one will care. And they have beaches second to none.
If you deliberately go to the trouble to go all the way to Dubai, and then you break the law of Dubai, honey, you're on your own so far as I am concerned.
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