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Racists will be made to leave UAE: Emirati slams Islamophobic Twitter posts

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Emirati, Islamophopic, Twitter, Sheikha Hend Al Qassimi

Dubai - The screenshots of tweets show targeting Muslims over a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi.

Published: Fri 17 Apr 2020, 12:00 PM

Updated: Fri 17 Apr 2020, 11:41 PM

  • By
  • Sahim Salim

An Emirati businesswoman and philanthropist has called out an expat over his Islamophobic tweets. Sheikha Hend Al Qassimi shared screenshots of tweets from a now-deactivated account and warned: "Anyone that is openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE will be fined and made to leave."

The screenshots of tweets shared by Sheikha Hend show someone by the name of Saurabh Upadhyay targeting Muslims over a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi that reportedly led to an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in India.

He also called members of the sect "Islamic terrorists". 

Tweeting from a verified handle, @LadyVelvet_HFQ, the Emirati - who bears Sharjah's royal family Al Qassimi surname - said "the ridicule won't go unnoticed".  

Responding to another tweet from the user (which cannot be seen as the account has been deactivated), Sheikha Hind said: "The ruling family is friends with Indians, but as a royal your rudeness is not welcome. All employees are paid to work, no one comes for free. You make your bread and butter from this land which you scorn."

In the screenshots shared by Sheikha Hind, Saurabh seems to claim that the Tablighis spat on people. "What's with peaceful people and spitting? New form of jiiihad custom made for 2020? (sic)"

People of over 200 nationalities live and work harmoniously in the UAE. Religious intolerance and hatred are criminal offences in the UAE, which celebrated 2019 as the Year of Tolerance.

A federal law passed in 2015 criminalises any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion or caste. It also criminalises any act that incites religious hatred or insults religion, either verbally or in print or online. Any person who calls others 'infidels' or unbelievers can be punished under the law.



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