IN TRANSIT THROUGH DUBAI AIRPORT

 In September 2022, I flew with my wife from Tbilisi to Bangkok via Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. We flew to Abu Dhabi on a Dubai Air plane.

At the airport in Dubai I ended up having an altercation with one of the members of airport security, who vehemently and impolitely insisted on forcing me to take off my shoes.

 Since  9/11 2001, travelers have completely forgotten how they were normally being treated at airports before the Saudi attack on the World Trade Center in NY. Since then, we have all been treated as potential terrorists, forced to take our shoes off,  left without a belt, humiliated in every way by security teams lacking basic common sense.

In the altercation in Dubai, I told the boss of the agent who insisted on making me  take my shoes off that it was an abuse to mistreat elderly people such as myself, hailing from European countries,  who have no history  of terrorist activities. Moreover, I drew the attention of the chief that most, if not almost all, of today's terrorists come precisely from or around the absolutist states of the Gulf, a fact that the people coordinated by him knew only too well. After I was given to sign a declaration that I would never pass through Dubai again - which I did with great pleasure - I was allowed to board the plane...

I remembered this episode yesterday, when I learned about the attack of the Saudi psychiatrist in Magdeburg. Both he and Osama Bin Laden had problems in Saudi Arabia with the royal family there and took revenge outside of it, against the ordinary Americans - and now on the Germans - for the alleged Western support of their governments for the Riyadh monarchy. In both cases, the main issue was not really about the Islamic faith. In fact, the issue  was an internal political conflict opposing 2 Saudi dissidents to  the Saudi royals' rule,  for which unfortunately the residents of New York or  now Magdeburg paid the ultimate price.

Because of the actions of such individuals, we continue to be mistreated or abused at  airports around the world for the past 23 years. The terrorist threat is actively being used since then as a pretext to generate more security jobs, leading to the formation of over-sized, over-zealous and unprofessional teams ,which are needlessly harassing international travellers. Is there no end in sight to this veritable nightmare?