New law in UAE bans religious or racial discrimination

The United Arab Emirates has banned religious or racial discrimination citing a royal decree by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

The aim of the new law is against Islamic military, particularly hard-line Muslims label followers of other schools of Islam unbelievers, also bans insults against other religions.

“The new law No. 02 of 2015 criminalizes any acts that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media,” as the statement says.

The UAE is anxious about political Islam, which appeals to religious conservatives meanwhile is challenging short of democratic guidelines.

It has declared that the Muslim Brotherhood denies any involvement in militant violence and taken part in US-led airstrikes on ISIS insurgent group in Syria.

The UAE is also worried that Sunni extremists have stoked sectarian tensions in the Gulf with recent explosion at Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

ISIS has urged Muslims in Gulf to target Western emigrants in revenge for attacks against it. Virtually all UAE citizens are Muslims, most of them are Sunni. The country is also home for thousands of non-Muslim emigrants and is popular for tourists.

Human rights groups criticise the UAE for oppressing on freedom of speech and blame it for using laws against terrorism to imprison peaceful critics of the government.