It’s all about the money and the status quo!

Students and faculty have come together to speak out against Vanderbilt University’s negotiations to partner with the government of Abu Dhabi, an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, to create a new school of education.

“Abu Dhabi is notorious for workers’ rights violations”, sex trade, drug trafficking, money laundering, “its treatment of homosexuals and for spreading lies about the Holocaust. Why would Vanderbilt, one of them most prestigious universities in the world, want to do business with this country?” asked senior David Pasch, co-founder Students Against Vanderbilt in the Emirates (SAVE).

The first opposition to the proposed campus came in an op-ed published in Monday’s issue of The Hustler by Pasch and SAVE co-founder Theodore Samets. The op-ed highlighted human rights violations and concerns about academic freedom that exist within Abu Dhabi.

Emirati authorities arrested a professor at Sorbonne’s Abu Dhabi branch campus after he called for democratic reforms, according to Inside Higher Education. Unaware about the details of this case, McNamara would not comment and said that Vanderbilt has been assured the new school would have the same standards of academic freedom as Vanderbilt University.

The vast majority of faculty at Vanderbilt -Peabody are against the new school.

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"This leading group of artists is making clear that they will not showcase their work in a museum built by abused workers, and that the steps taken to date by Guggenheim and TDIC are inadequate," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "If the Guggenheim and TDIC fail to address the artists' concerns, the museum may become better known for exhibiting labor violations than art."

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The trial of Ahmed Mansoor, a blogger and human rights activist who has been held since April, is due to resume in Abu Dhabi on 18 July. Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to drop the charges against this netizen and release him without delay.

More than 10 police officers took part in Mansoor’s arrest in April, seizing two laptops and several documents. His arrest, after signing a petition calling for democratic reforms in the United Arab Emirates, followed several weeks during which he was the target of intimidation attempts and a smear campaign, especially on the social networks Facebook and Twitter.

Mansoor was also pressured by his employer, a telecommunications company that suddenly decided to relocate to Pakistan in a move which, according to Mansoor’s blog, was motivated by political interests.

Four other pro-democracy activists are being tried with Mansoor. They are Farhad Salem, Nasser bin Ghaith, Hassan Ali Al-Khamis and Ahmed Abdul Khaleq. They are all charged with threatening state security, undermining public order and insulting the president, the vice president and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

They pleaded not-guilty when the first hearing was held on 14 June, just hours after the judge scheduled to preside the case was replaced. During the hearing, a pro-government demonstration took place outside, with members of the crowd chanting death threats against the defendants.

The trial would be adjourned again at next week’s hearing as the prosecution wants to bring new “witnesses” whose identity has not yet been revealed to the defence. Reporters Without Borders has learned that Mansoor is meanwhile suffering from a severe allergy but has been denied access to a dermatologist, despite repeated requests.

He seems to be the collateral victim of the increase in security measures and repression that Arab governments have adopted up in recent months because of the spread of protests. More arrests are taking place, online filtering and surveillance of Internet users have been stepped up and the authorities are still trying to get access to the BlackBerry smartphone’s encrypted communications – all disturbing signs in this troubled region.

The United Arab Emirates is listed as a “country under surveillance” in the “Enemies of the Internet” report that Reporters Without Borders released on 12 March.

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While other countries in the Gulf have expedited reforms to appease citizens demanding more freedom, the UAE – despite having long-attempted to present itself as a model of progress – has taken a different tack, silencing any individuals or organisations questioning the status quo.

The surreptitious crackdown has affected all spheres – professional associations, non-governmental organisations, think-tanks, the blogosphere and even art exhibitions.

Five Emirati bloggers and academics who were rounded up in April are currently on trial for "opposing the government", threatening state security and insulting the country's leaders. The arrests have shocked the desert nation. Dr Nasser bin Ghaith, one of the accused, is an academic at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne University.

Since the arrests, authorities have cast their net wider, dissolving the boards of several non-governmental organisations such as the Jurists' Association, a group active in the defence of human rights, and replacing them with government appointees. The Teachers' Association has received similar treatment. Rights groups have described the move as a "hostile takeover of civil society".

"What we are seeing is a collapse in democratic rights," said one activist, who, like many, now declines to have his name published for fear of reprisals. "We have gone back 30 years. They are afraid the revolutions will come to the UAE so they are scaring people into keeping silent."

The targeting of respected academic institutions has raised eyebrows as they are hardly revolutionary hotbeds. Last month the Gulf Research Centre, one of the UAE's few political think-tanks, said it was being forced to leave the country after "objections by the Dubai government to various aspects of GRC's work." The head of the Dubai School of Government has also resigned.

Amid an ever-growing state of paranoia, the chief of the Arab world's biggest art show, the Sharjah Biennale, has also been sacked for not sufficiently censoring the exhibition.

The government's attack on the country's pro-reform voices began after 133 prominent Emiratis signed a petition in March requesting the right of all citizens to vote for members of the country's Federal National Council. Currently a government-appointed electorate votes for half the members of the council, which wields virtually no legislative authority, leaving power in the hands of the al-Nayhan royal family, headed by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.

Signatories say they have since been threatened by security officials. "They come to us and say we will be the next in jail. They say we are trying to destroy our country," said one.

Before his arrest, Ahmed Mansoor, one of the five activists on trial and a prominent Dubai-based blogger who helped organise the petition, wrote a final dramatic blog post.

Entitled "They came to take me in at 3.50am", it described the moment his building's security guard knocked on his door to tell him three policemen outside wanted to speak to him about a problem with his car. "They make such tricks to and take you," Mr Mansoor wrote.

Mr Mansoor had long suspected that his blog would lead him into trouble with the authorities. "My family have mixed feelings; they think this might bring trouble not only for me, but for them too," he said in an interview with The Independent before his arrest. "On several occasions they've asked me not to talk about more sensitive topics."

There is concern that the trial, which resumes on 18 July, will result in heavy sentences. Professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a politics lecturer at UAE University who knows several of the detainees, described the charges as "heavy and loaded."

While outwardly trying to maintain the façade of a progressive haven for Western business and expatriate workers, in reality it has been increasing its grip on power.

The country's divided interests are evident in its diplomacy. Abu Dhabi's F-16s and Mirage jets are supporting the Libyan rebels fighting against Gaddafi's brutal regime. But the UAE remains one of the most visible supporters of the region's other embattled leaders, with the President sending messages of solidarity with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, and the Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, visiting in a gesture of fraternity. He paid a similar visit to Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak shortly before he was ousted.

It remains to be seen whether the recent crackdown will silence the dissent, or help to galvanise the reform movement. For one of the petition's signatories the latter seemed more likely. "Emiratis can't accept this treatment: the people are angry," he said.

Then there are the reported lay-offs of hundreds of expatriates in the public sector as the UAE leaders scramble to bring down 14 per cent unemployment. With those expatriates who have been asked to leave said to have been given just weeks to go, the leadership's urgency in pacifying the country's disaffected youth is evident.