IRAQI SUNNI IMAM AL-KUBAYSI STIRS

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