DUBAI — Three Emirati Islamists including a prominent lawyer were arrested in the UAE Tuesday as part of a widening clampdown on dissidents, relatives and activists said. The arrests brought the number of detained Emirati dissidents, most of them Islamists, to 10 since Sunday, when the Gulf Arab state said it was investigating a foreign-linked group planning “crimes against the security of the state”. Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment Tuesday. The UAE, a major oil exporter, allows no organised political opposition. It has avoided the political unrest that has toppled four Arab heads of state since last year thanks in part to its cradle-to-grave welfare system. But it has also moved swiftly against dissidents, and last year stripped citizenship from Islamists whom it deemed a security threat and jailed activists who called for more power for a semi-elected advisory council. Lawyer Mohammed Al-Roken, his son and son-in-law were detained on Tuesday, activists and family members said. All are linked to the local Islamist group Al-Islah (Reform), which has been the target of a crackdown in the UAE. Roken represented seven Islamists stripped of citizenship last year. “He (Roken) was taken by security officials at 2 A.M. in the morning when he was out with the driver looking for his son and son-in-law who were also arrested,” a relative told Reuters. UAE authorities have expressed concern that the growing influence of Islamists in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia could embolden Islamist groups at home. Islamists in the UAE say they share similar ideology with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt but have no direct links with the group, seen as a mentor for Islamist groups in the region. — Reuters
