I'm all for letting anyone who wants to run around nekkid. Well, some people shouldn't be nekkid but that's a fashion statement rather than a moral statement.
From there, Dubai is only after the money. They have to let westerners do their thing in order o make money. If they could enforce their laws and make money, you can bet the would.
Certainly Dubai has an economic interest in attracting Westerners. The US has traditionally had economic interests in attracting immigrants, too, though; I don't know that you can argue that we became a pro-immigrant country because we just decided it was the Right Thing to Do.
Also, your argument is less true for Qatar. They really don't need to impress Westerners; they can be the richest people in the world just by selling us their natural gas. So they do have a choice about how much to protect their traditional culture, and they STILL choose to let me wear a bikini.
Well, yes. But my thought is that they need to show everyone how progressive they can be in order to make that sale. I could be totally wrong, but that's my gut.
How do you figure that? Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are considerably less progressive than either Dubai or Qatar, and they STILL have the world in their palm. Oil - you can't really get it anywhere else, so they don't really care about "being nice".
qatar, I think your point is very valid one. Another more private example is that a Muslim with multiple wives, can't really immigrate to the USA, at least not and keep their legally created family together. And this isn't even really an in-your-face "public" issue
Shmuel, that's another good example. In fact, practicing (or even HAVING practiced) polygamy is considered "moral turpitude" for immigration purposes and bars you from citizenship.
In addition to what Shmuel said, it's worth noting that almost all Qatar's LNG exports are to Asia. China's been increasing its LNG consumption a lot lately... do you think it cares how progressive Qatar is? :-)
Well, some people shouldn't be nekkid but that's a fashion statement rather than a moral statement.
From there, Dubai is only after the money. They have to let westerners do their thing in order o make money.
If they could enforce their laws and make money, you can bet the would.
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Also, your argument is less true for Qatar. They really don't need to impress Westerners; they can be the richest people in the world just by selling us their natural gas. So they do have a choice about how much to protect their traditional culture, and they STILL choose to let me wear a bikini.
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I could be totally wrong, but that's my gut.
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qatar, I think your point is very valid one. Another more private example is that a Muslim with multiple wives, can't really immigrate to the USA, at least not and keep their legally created family together. And this isn't even really an in-your-face "public" issue
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