For Sudan: Boycott the UAE — Muslim Enabler of Genocide

Emirati investment offerings, including Islamic ones, should be skipped.

The tragedy taking place in Sudan since April 2023 is hardly in dispute. Even western governments and media are calling things by their names, as they should — in stark contrast to routine verbal manoeuvring used in covering Gaza.

Yet, in a contradictory way, the genocide in Sudan has been largely a silent one, trivialised almost on all sides as just another civil strife between local power-hungry factions. The truth, as always, is more complicated.

Third parties are involved, and one immediately responsible for the massacres perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces in Darfur is the United Arab Emirates. This has been affirmed by the UN, independent investigations and human rights groups.

Photo by XT7 Core on Unsplash

The UAE’s business in Sudan

Perfectly aware of the RSF’s violent tactics, the UAE has backed the brutal militia, by providing weapons and equipment, since the very beginning. And despite report after report documenting mass killings and war crimes over the past two years, the Emiratis have stayed the course.

The UAE has multiple reasons to be vying for Sudan. To start, it is a proxy battle for control with Saudi Arabia. The broader political impetus is to advance the aims of the Gulf’s master in Washington, which is still another manifestation of Emirati support for the Greater Israel project.

Equally important is the UAE’s vested economic interest in Sudan. All of Sudanese gold — that the RSF has nearly complete control of — gets smuggled to Dubai. Aside from illicit gold trade, the Horn of Africa for the UAE has also been about seizing land and maritime access.

Link to the UAE’s Islamic finance industry

The UAE has long hoped to establish itself as a global hub for Islamic finance. Some of the most established Islamic financial institutions do, in fact, hail from there. These same institutions, however, have been facilitating resource theft and genocide.

Major Emirati banks, like Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank, which have been active in Sudan for decades, alongside other Gulf entities, are servicing the murderous RSF, for laundering illegal gold money but not only.

In this post — the only one on Tayyib Finance in which I discussed an Emirati stock — a Malaysian Islamic bank was presented as an alternative:

Bank Islam Malaysia vs. Dubai Islamic Bank: Which is a Better Halal Dividend Stock?

Link to the UAE’s state-linked firms

Of course, it is not only Emirati financial institutions that are involved with Sudan. Businesses spanning from agriculture to logistics to construction are implicated in potentially corrupt, illegal or unethical management of Sudanese national assets.

Now, a dozen or so UAE-based companies on official sanction lists are private entities. But transparency on ownership and related parties is so poor that verifying if listed Emirati firms​ have any links to sanctioned individuals is nearly impossible.

And since more than half of all public companies in the UAE have a Shariah-compliant status, Muslim investors would do well to exercise a degree caution when looking for Emirati stocks to buy.

Particularly prominent among blue-chips are state or ruling dynasty linked corporations, like Emirates Telecommunications Group and International Holding Company. These could be exposed via non-listed subsidiaries or joint ventures.

Avoid (among others): Largest Listed Shariah-Compliant GLCs

1. International Holding Company (ADX:IHC; Investments)

2. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (ADX:TAQA; Utilities)

3. ADNOC Gas (ADX:ADNOCGAS; Energy)

4. Emirates Telecommunications Group (ADX:EAND; Telecommunications)

5. Alpha Dhabi Holding (ADX:ALPHADHABI; Industrial)

6. ADNOC Drilling Company (ADX:ADNOCDRILL; Energy)

7. Borouge (ADX:BOROUGE; Chemicals)

8. Aldar Properties (ADX:ALDAR; Real estate);

9. ADNOC Distribution (ADX:ADNOCDIST; Fuel retail)

10. ADNOC Logistics & Services (ADX:ADNOCLS; Maritime logistics)

Takeaway

Start with the obvious: eliminate stocks with any business at all in gold supply chains, ports and logistics (which includes different Emirati airlines). Even exposure to Sudanese agriculture should be considered suspect. Plus, all companies with majority state ownership must be avoided, simply by the unfortunate virtue of being controlled by a morally corrupt government.

Let’s not forget that the UAE was part of the Saudi-led and US-backed coalition that devastated Yemen. Incidentally, the RSF mercenaries were sent to fight in Yemen courtesy of the UAE. Meanwhile, the Emirati normalisation with Israel is going from strength to strength, encompassing everything from trade and investments, to military ties, to tourism.

There is no doubt that among purportedly Muslim nations, the UAE is one the foremost traitors to ummatic causes — from Yemen to Palestine to Sudan. In the same breath, however, it lays claim to worldwide leadership in Islamic finance. Thankfully, their duplicity has never been more apparent. Muslim investors beware.

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