UAE said to slash scholarships to study in UK, citing fear of Muslim Brotherhood |
The United Arab Emirates has curtailed subsidies for Emirati citizens to attend UK universities, citing concern that they will become radicalized by the Muslim Brotherhood there, according to British media.
The UAE’s relatively moderate, business-friendly autocracy has enabled it to attract people and capital from around the world, turning the oil-rich Gulf state into an economic powerhouse.
Emirati leaders consider groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates for society to be administered based on Islamic religious principles, to be an existential threat, and have lobbied Western nations to declare the Brotherhood a terrorist organization. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last month that the matter was under “close review.”
Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the Financial Times reported Thursday that the UAE in June excluded popular British institutions from a list of foreign universities that Emirati citizens........