UAE arabs liberal?

Money most likely, though I've never being to Dubai.

One of my closest online friends is an UAE citisen and he's more liberal than most Westerners I know. Judging by what he has told me though the place is�still in a state of tension between the�old�and�to�some�extent�islamic�conservatism�and�the�more�modern�ideas�of�liberalism,�so�I'd
expect to find a bit of both worlds.

Because it is a dictatorship. If it was the choice Dubai would be as conservative as Saudi Arabia. It is all about attention that is why you see the rulers of Dubai spend all the money they have just so that their tiny and formely insignificant little city gets world wide attention.

Dubai is building a viable economy for when the oil stops flowing.

The guy  is anything but wise. inflation is too high, unemployment is freightening and all of his projects are failures. Come on, Burj Al Arab took some 2 billion $ to build, the official figure is 650 million and it is exclusively a hotle now tell me how is he going to get back his invested capital, what is even worse is the artiftial islands he is now building with even a much higher cost. he married a Jordania princess half his age just to make headlines, gave citizenship to forign athletes so that his country could make a world wide fuss. the only real income source he has, and the UAE in general is us poor wretched Saudis. The bureaucratic nightmare, my father and I own a business I know what I am talking about, makes large scale investments as well as foriegn capital flow nearly impossible in Saudi Arabia. Amazon is forbidden from entering Saudi Arabia for example and books from other sites take two months to reach the buyer because Costums search them. Many consumer products are non existant or at astronomical prices, so people go to Bahrain and UAE for shopping. When the former ruler of Dubai died during the two week eid vacation, the net loss for the dubai economy because of the scrapping of the shopping festival and forced mourning, which meant that Saudis will not come and they did not, was 8 billion$. So now you know.

Amazon is forbidden from entering Saudi Arabia for example and books from other sites take two months to reach the buyer because Costums search them. Many consumer products are non existant or at astronomical prices, so people go to Bahrain and UAE for shopping.

I'm not sure this is his fault, more Saudi Arabia's fault?

Maybe it has something to do with the demographics of the country???

You really want to rethink what you said about Saudi Arabia, I suggest you read more starting with lets say, the Time magazine archives.

No more barely hidden ethnic slurs please. And streotypes cause you to go dangerously near the line violating the CoC.

How so? I wasn't aware their were any real cultural differences between Arabs... what would they entail. I get that their might be political divisions culturally.... but is their anything less superficial then that?