ABSTRACT
The cases of Qaradawi in Qatar and Bin Bayyah in the UAE offer a different history and dynamic. The support the Al Thanis and Al Nahyans provide Qaradawi and Bin Bayyah extends beyond financing organizations like IUMS and FPPMS. While the course of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Syria certainly affected Qaradawi's and Bin Bayyah's understandings of democracy, it appears that so too did the legacy of the US-led occupation of Iraq. Like Qaradawi, Bin Bayyah understands democracy to mean the empowerment of the majority. In a world dominated by “global cities,” Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai now rival the likes of London, Paris, and New York as watchwords for aspiration and modernity. Consequently, though ulama like Qaradawi and Bin Bayyah might be ridiculed as hypocrites and stooges, or praised as moral voices in equal measure, what they could never be is ignored.
