ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates â A senior Emirati official is warning that demonstrations in Europe have crossed a line from political expression into a national security threat, arguing that extremism must be confronted before it turns violent.
“You can go demonstrate, talk, give a speech, but what [we] saw in the street in 11 cities in Europe is not freedom of speech. It is a threat to national security,” Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
The remarks come against a wider European debate over radicalization. On Nov. 3, Europol reported that authorities from 16 countries had referred more than 9,000 links to extremist and terrorist material appearing across 47 social media and gaming platforms. The operation targeted online role-playing content promoting jihadist, far-right, far-left and anarchist violence, including material that could draw minors toward extremist networks.
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What makes the UAE’s response distinctive, officials and experts argue, is its belief that the struggle against extremism begins long before police make an arrest â in classrooms, families and the way people of different backgrounds learn to live together.
“The root is extremism, not violent extremism. ⦠In our school system, we promote coexistence. We promote the values that bring us together, regardless of our religion, our nationality, our ethnic [background], our color. ⦠We have to learn how to live with our differences and to accept everyone as they are,” Al Nuaimi said.
At Hedayah, the Abu Dhabi-based International Center of Excellence for Countering Extremism and Violent Extremism, Fox News Digital spoke with Maqsoud Kruse, chairman of the center’s International Steering Board and the UAE foreign minister’s envoy for countering extremism and terrorism.
Kruse, an organizational psychologist who helped establish Hedayah in 2012, described radicalization as a process that can begin with ideas, develop through emotional responses and, in some cases, lead to violent behavior. Understanding that progression, he argued, creates opportunities to intervene long before violence occurs.
“When we talk about countering extremism and terrorism, we understand and realize that no one country, no one institution, no one individual can deal with this on their own,” Kruse told Fox News Digital. “We need that international collaboration, that networking, that bridging, where everyone is part of the solution.”
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Within the UAE, he explained, the emphasis is on an integrated approach that brings together psychology, sociology, education and economics rather than treating extremism solely as a security problem.
“That integrated approach means we need to shift from a problem-focused approach to a solution based approach where we create patterns of hope,” he said.
The distinction is central to the UAE’s tolerance strategy: rather than waiting until extremist beliefs turn into violence, Kruse argues that societies must invest in educa
