• 8 years ago
The Emirati Amal Al Qubaisi is the President of the Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates – the region’s first female leader of a national assembly and is one of the most influential women in the Arab world.

She visited Belgium immediately after the terrorist attacks in Brussels to meet the EU Commission.

She belongs to the 50 Most Powerful Arab Women in the World and fights for openness and tolerance.

Euronews: “When you met Federica Mogherini, the European Union Foreign Policy chief in Brussels, immediately after the terrorist attack how do you remember those days?”

Amal Al Qubaisi, President of UAE Federal National Council: “There was some advice that maybe you shouldn’t go, maybe it’s better to let things cool down on the security level, and also the people’s wounds were very fresh. And as a Muslim leader I might be seen not in the right place.

‘I insisted more on going, because I thought it’s the best time to be there for, first showing solidarity, secondly bearing condolences and most importantly to prove to everyone that they will not shake us, they will not succeed in bringing as apart.”

Euronews: “The UAE-EU relationship made “common understanding”. What have you agreed on together?”

Amal Al Qubaisi, President of UAE Federal National Council: “We discussed the situation in our region in the Middle East and I made it very explicit that we are really so frustrated because unfortunately extremism and terrorism are related to Islam. We can clear out all this misunderstanding we feel that Islam has been hijacked from us.

‘HIjacked by people and these terrorist militias and groups who have their own political agenda, who want to destroy all the good relations that we have with the West and the East who would also like unfortunately to not see any stability in our world.

‘If we allow them to do this, if we believe that Islam is behind this and Muslims are really the bad guys this will be itself a huge success for them. We should not allow it. So we joined agendas, our agendas are alike. We are waging the same war against terrorism. We have also to create immunity against the terrorist ideologies that are around us, against the use of youth and children to be, you know, a ticking bomb, to be the ones who are exporting extremism and terrorism within their countries. We have also to build this together.

‘We discussed this and she thinks that myself as a Muslim woman who is in this position is a very good example of clearing this misunderstanding of what we are, you know, the meaning of our own religion is peace and that we are against what is happening and we cannot tolerate it and because of that we have zero tolerance with intolerance.”

Euronews:
“Extremist Islamists have produced a bad perception of Muslims in Europe and elsewhere. How can the UAE deal with that?”

Amal Al Qubaisi, President of UAE Federal National Council: “Dealing with that abroad is to build stronger and better communication, is to co

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