The Wall Street Journal-20080124-Dubai-s Good Example
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Dubai's Good Example
The hugely impressive success and bright future of Dubai are genuinely admirable and hopeful signs for growth in that region ("Our Ambitions for the Middle East," op-ed, Jan. 12). The Maktoum family and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum are to be sincerely congratulated and encouraged for their accomplishments. May they enjoy much more of the same as they become even more of a hopeful beacon to young Muslims worldwide.
I believe the Sheikh lapsed into Islamic spin in the latter part of his well-presented article.
Education and entrepreneurship are most assuredly "the twin underpinnings for building a safer world." Neither exists in any western context in most of the Muslim world, and both seem to be resisted in most of it.
It's the same with humility and tolerance. I truly believe the Dubai success demonstrates the exercise of both. But in most of the rest of the Muslim world humility seems more like intellectual slavery, and tolerance seems nonexistent. It is to be hoped that Dubai's great success can contribute to modifying some of the more troublesome goals of Islam.
Charles R. Smith
San Jose, Calif.
