UAE: Police Insisted he "Remove his Niqab... Greeted with a Long Beard," Another 'Burka Bandit' Nabbed

Similar incidents have happened all over the world. For example; in Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Terrorist also use this as a way to elude the authorities (e.g. here). This time it's the United Arab Emirates.

From Gulf News:

Dubai A man has been accused of cross-dressing after police said they found him walking like a man while wearing an abaya and a niqab in a street.

Police said the 35-year-old Frenchman said he dressed in the abaya to steal jewellery and sell it to repay a €1 million (Dh4.6 million) debt he had accumulated in Paris.

Police suspected 35-year-old K.K., when they saw him walking in the street, and they arrested him when they realised he maybe a man despite being covered from top to bottom.

Prosecutors charged K.K. with cross-dressing by wearing women’s clothing, covering his hands with black gloves and carrying a female purse.

He was also accused of using a different name during a police investigation, by claiming he was an Algerian named A.J.

When the suspect appeared at Dubai Misdemeanour Court, he could not admit or deny the accusations as there was no French language translator.

“I don’t understand English, I only speak French,” K.K. told Presiding Judge Ali Saad.

The policemen who found the man said nothing was revealed from his body except his eyes. 

Walk like a man

One of the arresting police officers called K.K. and asked him to stop when he noticed that he walked like a man. The suspect did not reply and continued walking into a shop. The policemen followed him inside. When one of them tried to speak to him, K.K. tried to soften his voice and spoke like a woman.

The two policemen insisted he was a man and asked him to remove his niqab. They were greeted with a long beard.

Police searched his purse and confiscated a toy gun, knife and plastic tape in his possession.

During prosecution questioning, K.K. claimed he was a merchant but had suffered major financial loss and accumulated €1 million in debt in Paris.

“I could not repay my debts. I decided to visit Dubai and steal diamonds then sell it to be able to cover my debts. I took my wife’s abaya and niqab then came here. I came here on May 30 and I got arrested on June 1. I purchased the confiscated items from Mall of the Emirates. I stood in front of the shop that I was planning to rob before the policemen suspected me. My debt is what urged me to do this… I dressed up like a woman to steal,” claimed K.K.

The court reconvenes on July 2.

First Belgium, then France, and now Australia: Third act of Muslim on Muslim terror in just over a week

An update to this post is available here: Now it's five Muslim on Muslim attacks in nine days

If we include Islamic and Muslim majority nations, Muslim on Muslim terror attacks and violence happen on an almost daily basis. But the last 8 days are notable for acts of violence perpetrated by Muslims against fellow Muslims, because this trend seems to have begun spreading into secular and liberal "Western" nations.

On March 12, 2012, sectarian violence hit Belgium when a Shi'ite imam died in a mosque arson attack by a Sunni Muslim. He entered the mosque in Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, setting it alight and shouting Sunni slogans on his way out — cries related to the conflict in Syria.

On March 16, 2012, a bat-wielding Muslim worshiper entered a mosque in northern France and repeatedly beat two elderly men with it, killing one and badly injuring the other.

And now it has been reported that the Alevi Community Council of Australia centre in North Coburg, Melbourne, has been Petrol-bombed and notes were pinned to the fence threatening Alevis unless they "testified" that Allah was the only god to be worshipped. Alevi is a branch of the Sufi order of Shi'ite Islam.

This is not to say that Western Muslim on Muslim violence and terrorism has never happened before. It most certainly has, or has been attempted. For example:

On August 14, 2011, in broad daylight and heavy traffic, a pro-Israel Muslim poet was viciously attacked on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Muslims used a knife to carve a Star of David on his back while laughing and reciting his pro-Jewish poem.

On January 2011, in what would have also been another notable incident, what was first believed to be an attempted anti-Muslim terrorist attack against a Shi'ite Dearborn mosque, turned out to be motivated by inter-Islamic sectarian differences. Roger Stockham, the so-called "Christian terrorist", turned out to be a convert to Sunni Islam. Stockham is now facing a charge of possessing explosives with unlawful intent.

And, of course, we have Muslim Honor violence that is fast becoming a norm among non-Muslim nations that have a Muslim minority.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A petrol-bomb attack on a community centre has prompted fears among Melbourne’s Alevi population they could be targeted with more violence on religious grounds.

Glass bottles containing petrol and set alight were thrown at the front and rear doors of the Alevi Community Council of Australia centre in North Coburg overnight.

No one was inside the centre at the time of the incident, but a centre spokeswoman said the building’s rear door was badly burnt.

Surmeli Aydogan, the council’s community liaison officer, said the centre’s users were also concerned to find notes pinned to the fence threatening Alevis on religious grounds unless they "testified" that Allah was the only god to be worshipped.

Ms Aydogan said the centre had previously received threatening phone calls, but had dismissed them as pranks. However, she said the attack with petrol bombs had left the council's members shaken.

Alevi is a branch of the Sufi order of Shia Islam.

"We're worried this might happen again, and what if this happens when people are here? That's our main concern," she said.

"We're concerned about that as well because we have a youth group here, we have young children here, we have elderly groups. There are people at the centre every single day. It’s a cultural centre, so we do cultural things like reading poetry and dance and so forth."

Ms Aydogan said the attack had stirred painful memories for some of the city’s Alevi population, many of whom moved to Australia after years of oppression in Turkey.

"We’re an oppressed group and we’ve been denied our rights in Turkey, but we live in Australia," she said.

"We’re Australian Alevis now and this sort of thing happening here brings back memories, particularly for our elderly, of what they went through."

Fawkner police confirmed detectives were investigating the incident.