ABSTRACT
The utilization of cultural and religious symbolisms in the strengthening of traditional systems of rule within the Arab Gulf in general, and in the United Arab Emirates in particular, have been the object of considerable academic attention over the past years. Even though the common bond rooted in traditional Arab and Islamic values was a positive factor, trucial society was also divided into tribes, many of them still nomadic and often displaying a deep-seated dislike and suspicion of one another. The United Arab Emirates is a country located in the south-east area of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman. Before the UAE reached independence, its regions were known as the Trucial States, a small collection of poverty-stricken sheikhdoms that had been under British domination since the nineteenth century. Throughout the 1990s, cultural anxieties continued to reverberate throughout UAE society, reaching a high point with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
