He also warned of the Iranian threat and alleged that Tehran interfered in the internal affairs of the GCC countries. In an interview to the London-based Asharq Al Awasat daily, the police chief said the group had a network across the Emirates which they had nurtured for 40 years.
“The UAE welcomed members of the Muslim Brotherhood who fled their countries. Some came as Muslim scholars, others as teachers and professionals. Our citizens were not aware of their intentions; they regarded them as clerics and ordinary people who were fled despots in their own countries, and offered them a safe haven here in the GCC.”
They were accorded a warm welcome, but the late Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the then Saudi Interior Minister realised the trouble they were fomenting in our society. “We welcomed them, but unfortunately we found them inciting our people against us,” he said.
Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood rose to high positions in their professions. “They were also hired in the Islamic Affairs and Awqaf (endowments), but unfortunately they set up cells and indoctrinated their students to turn renegades and rise against the rulers and the people who had welcomed them,” Dhahi told Asharq Al Awasat.
He claimed the group had a solid organisational structure across the country. “In each Emirate, there is a man in-charge of the organisational structure of the group, a media person, a person responsible for families of the members as well as for integrated planning. They have set up charity wings and centres for girls. These were being done to spread their message and establish their goals at the appointed time.”
Dhahi said he had gone on social networks to take on the propaganda of the Brotherhood, after the societies in which they live began to believe them. “UAE society knows that I am truthful. They (the Muslims Brotherhood) had reached the limit of ridiculing the government and institutions in UAE.”
“Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been appointed to many posts in the GCC countries and are attempting to bring down the governments and their departments into disrepute,” he said.
He said in the interview that these members were discovered after many of them were appointed to high posts. These members hired others to sensitive positions. “We found out what they were up to and intervened in the recruitment processes.” All this happened before the Arab Spring, the Dhahi added.
Several of their leaders have been blacklisted by the UAE, but he did not specify a number. “They cannot be trusted, they are cunning and deceptive,” he said. He revealed in the interview that the organisation had held a meeting last month and, on its agenda, was a discussion on how to get rid of the Salafists from gaining a foothold in Egyptian politics.
“There is no room for any Islamic parties in the UAE. We have not given anyone permission to establish any Islamic party, and basically there is no party in Islam,” he stated.
On the role of the Al Islah Association, he said it was a front for the Brotherhood. “We found some unacceptable practices and it has been shut out of the country for 15 years now,” he told Asharq Al Awasat.
In reply to a question on who poses more danger to the security of the Gulf region — Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood, he asked: ‘‘Why do you want a comparison? Both are dangerous. The Brotherhood had a timeframe, they plotted to overthrow GCC governments within seven years.”
Iran claimed its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes, but information gathered on the plan paints a different picture. “Besides, Iran interferes in the internal affairs of the GCC states, and incites sectarianism. Therefore, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood are alike, and both are looking to export revolutions,” he said in the interview.
On Tehran’s long-standing ties to the Assad regime in Syria and its repercussion on the region, he said: ‘‘Iran has nothing in its hands at the moment.”
Asked whether Iranian intelligence cells were discovered in the UAE, he said there is no country free from intelligence agencies.
