DUBAI, Feb 15: The United Arab Emirates is trying to shield itself against terror by cracking down on extremists and promoting a culture of moderation, Interior Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed al Nahayan said on Wednesday.

“Over the past years, we have handed over a number of people wanted on security charges to their countries” in keeping with international agreements, Sheikh Saif said in an interview.

“The authorities concerned also started dealing with extremist elements among expatriates more than 20 years ago by considering them persona non grata and consequently forcing them to leave the country,” he said.

Expatriates, mostly South Asians, make up some 80 per cent of the four-million population of the UAE, a federation of seven emirates which has so far managed to escape attacks by suspected militants who have struck in neighbouring countries, notably Saudi Arabia.

The minister said one factor that ‘has protected our country from acts of violence so far’ is that “all residents ... (are) here in order to make a living, not in order to achieve political or suspicious partisan goals’.

Dubai, one member of the UAE, has turned into a glitzy regional business and tourism hub in recent years, with mega construction projects sprouting both on land and off the coast of the affluent emirate.

Sheikh Saif, a member of the ruling family in Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest of the seven emirates, did not give details about the expelled suspects.

But one of the most prominent militants known to have been extradited to the United States after Emirati authorities arrested him in Oct 2002 is Abdel Rahim al Nashiri, who was described at the time as Al Qaeda’s chief for naval operations and its operations chief in the Gulf.

Mr Nashiri, born in Saudi Arabia of Yemeni descent, was sentenced to death in absentia by a Yemeni court in 2004 for playing a major role in the Oct 2000 bombing of the US destroyer Cole in Aden port which killed 17 American sailors.

He is also suspected of involvement in other attacks against US and

French targets.

The UAE is also known to have handed over to Pakistan in 2004 the leader of a group linked to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The Emirati minister said authorities in the Gulf country had not uncovered ‘organised terrorist cells in the accepted sense of the word, but a group of individuals, mostly expatriates, who espouse views that conflict with the line of centrism and moderation upheld by the UAE’.

None of those detained had actually carried out attacks inside the country, he said.

Efforts to stop illegal infiltrations into the UAE had also led to ‘the arrest of many extremist elements’, the minister added.

Sheikh Saif said the UAE had kept terror away by pursuing ‘centrist’ policies, treating people ‘with compassion and justice’ and applying the law to all without discrimination.

The UAE has also endeavoured to ‘promote a culture of centrism and moderation that prevents the exploitation of (the Islamic) religion for partisan or suspicious goals in schools, universities and mosques’, he said.

Sheikh Saif said that in addition to bringing in legislation to combat terror and money laundering, the UAE was keeping tabs on the activities of charities and preparing to amend laws to tighten controls on firms that manufacture explosives or chemical materials. —AFP