DEARBORN // The Arab American National Museum officially launched an online exhibit this week that aims to explore and overcome Arab stereotypes that have influenced popular culture for more than a century.
The exhibit, "Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes", includes commentary as well as paintings, books, films and sheet music showing Arab culture as exotic, uncivilised and threatening.
Evelyn Alsultany, the exhibit's curator and an assistant professor at University of Michigan who teaches about representations of Arabs and Muslims, said: "We wanted to make the knowledge of how Arabs have been represented in culture more accessible to the public.
"We're hoping people will leave the site with a vivid sense of this discrepancy between who Arab Americans are in their diversity and the actual limited, restricting stereotypes," she said.
Ms Alsultany said the first images of such stereotypes started to appear in the 1880s, about the time that Arabs began to settle in significant numbers in the United States.
The exhibit cites the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, which recreated Arab streets and customs. A book of photographs chronicling the fair included a depiction of the "peculiar manners of Egyptians" and refers to a girl's veil as an "unsightly disguise".
Ms Alsultany said the stereotype of "Arab as terrorist" began to appear in the 1960s, with the Arab-Israeli war. Such depictions have been common in movies during the past few decades, such as in 1994's True Lies, but films have a longer history of presenting women as belly-dancers and seductive-yet-veiled members of harems.
"A lot of times, we watch TV, we think to ourselves, 'This is make-believe,"' said Ms Alsultany, whose father came to the US from Iraq in the 1960s. "I want to challenge that idea. I'd like for viewers to see there are impacts of these stereotypes."
She said the effects include simple misperceptions, such as assuming all Arabs in the Middle East ride camels or live in tents in the desert. But stereotypes and overgeneralisations can also lead to mosque burnings and other crimes, as well as inform or influence US foreign policy.
The website offers video interviews of Ms Alsultany and other Arab-Americans, as well as examples of the community's contributions to US culture and society. The exhibit also explores stereotypes of other groups, such as Jews, African-Americans and Native Americans.
"One of the things we all agreed on, we didn't want to give impression that this is unique to Arabs," Ms Alsultany said. "The creation of an 'other' - these stereotypes - has happened over time to many groups."
The exhibit took five years to develop and received financial support from several foundations, including the Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which describes itself as being "rooted in the Jewish tradition and committed to democratic values and social justice, including fairness, diversity, and community."
The website is the first fully-fledged online exhibit for the museum, which opened in 2005 in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. The city has one of the oldest, largest and best known Middle Eastern communities in the nation.
"Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes" - online: www.arabstereotypes.org
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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