US embassy cable - 03ABUDHABI2013

S E C R E T ABU DHABI 002013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP AND NEA/NGA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/13 
TAGS: PREL, MOPS, EAID, SA, IZ, TC 
SUBJECT:  IRAQI SUNNI IMAM AL-KUBAYSI STIRS 
STRONG POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONS 
AMONGST EMIRATIS AND IRAQI EXPATS 
 
REF:  A) Dubai 1523; B) Riyadh 2221 
 
1. (U) Classified by Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba 
for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D). 
 
2. (S) Ahmed Al-Kubaysi the Iraqi Sunni Imam who 
delivered a fiery sermon in Baghdad on April 18, 
continues to be a source of controversy even in the 
UAE, his adopted land.  We received two very 
different takes on Al-Kubaysi, one from a prominent 
Emirati NGO head and another from a formerly well- 
connected Iraqi government official.  Their 
comments have separately been echoed by others in 
the UAE, highlighting the fact that while Al- 
Kubaysi has his admirers, particularly in UAE 
official circles (ref A), he also has his share of 
detractors. 
 
3. (S) UAE Jurists' Association Chairman Dr. 
Muhammad Al-Rukn -- in a meeting with Polchief and 
Poloff -- praised Al-Kubaysi, noting that the Iraqi 
preacher's strong connections to the Dubai Al- 
Maktoum ruling family had resulted in his being 
granted Emirati citizenship.  Al-Rukn, himself a 
conservative Sunni, reported that Al-Kubaysi is 
also tied to the Saudis (NFI), having studied in 
Riyadh in the early 1980s.  After leaving Iraq in 
the mid-1990s, Al-Kubaysi took up residency in 
Dubai where he became a key advisor on religious 
matters to the Dubai government and a regular on 
Dubai TV's weekly religious affairs program. 
According to Al-Rukn, the Iraqi cleric, an expert 
in the application of Shari'a law, played a role in 
the drafting of the UAE's personal status law (yet 
to be finalized). 
 
4. (S) Dr. Ala'a Al-Tameemi (strictly protect), a 
former high ranking official in the Iraqi Ministry 
of Industry and Trade and resident in the UAE since 
the mid-1990s, told Polchief that in his view, Al- 
Kubaysi was a dangerous, divisive figure and 
nothing more than a stalking horse for the Saudis 
and Emiratis, both of whom fear a Shi'a power grab. 
Al-Tameemi, also a Sunni, dismissed out of hand the 
rationale that Al-Kubaysi was trying to bridge 
Sunni-Shi'a differences, noting that Al-Kubaysi's 
real goal was to keep the Shi'a in their box and 
that he was coordinating closely with the Saudis in 
this regard.  According to Al-Tameemi, Al-Kubaysi, 
despite the "cover story" of fleeing Iraq in fear 
of Saddam, was in fact a "well known" Iraqi agent; 
Al-Tameemi went so far as to allege that Al-Kubaysi 
was "mukhabarat," i.e. an Iraqi intelligence agent. 
As proof, Al-Tameemi pointed to the fact that the 
Iraqi cleric had traveled back to Iraq on numerous 
occasions in the past few years, mostly as a member 
of UAE official delegations.  Al-Tameemi recalled 
that Al-Kubaysi had, just a few weeks before the 
onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, appeared on the 
Al-Jazeera program "Shari'a wal Hayat" during which 
he blasted the U.S. and compared Saddam Hussein to 
the Imam Hussein, hardly the actions of a Saddam 
oppositionist, in Al-Tameemi's view. 
 
WAHBA