Shaikh Mohammed gets pick of the crop…of slave boys

Alrighty then lets see who can spot the disconnect between these two stories?

DUBAI — His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, pushed bidding on a Kingmambo colt to a sale-record $11.7 million, a new height for the Keeneland September yearling sale on Tuesday.

Then this little tidbit of embarrassment for those advocates of moderate Islam.

MIAMI (AP) – The rulers of the United Arab Emirates are being accused in a lawsuit of enslaving tens of thousands of young boys over the last three decades and forcing them to work under brutal conditions as camel jockeys.

The civil lawsuit seeks class-action status and was filed last week by unnamed parents of boys as young as two years old who were allegedly abducted, enslaved and sold to serve as the backbone of the popular Arab sport camel racing. More than 30,000 boys could have been victimized in what the suit calls “one of the greatest humanitarian crimes of the last 50 years.”

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, the deputy ruler, were the most active perpetrators of the crimes, the lawsuit said. (Emphasis mine)

Oopsy. Is this a slight deviation off of the moderate road for the Sheikh or does he have a good excuse for enslaving over 30,000 boys as young as 2 years old? It is a dirty little secret of Islam that slavery is A-Ok indeed in Saudi Arabia slavery was legal until the 1960′s. Wonder if that will be a defense for the Crown Prince? Nah they wouldn’t try that line of defense would they?

I suppose that this never came up in the talks between the United States and UAE about the Ports deal? After all wouldn’t want to spoil that image of moderate Islam in action.

Oh it is somewhat humorous that a fawning article written by the Khaleej Times about the Crown Prince racing prowess had an unfortunate title “Shaikh Mohammed gets pick of the crop”.

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