At 9 O'Clock at night, the heat and humidity is almost overpowering and so the occasional blast of wind generated by the buildings around you is a welcome relief.

As you walk past the glass fronted buildings, you occasionally see the reflection of a beautiful emerald green light, reflecting the shape of a dome.

Whilst Abu Dhabi is now, like its counterpart Dubai, reaching toward its future, situated between these commercial giants, are small local mosques. It is difficult to walk around Abu Dhabi without seeing these places of worship. 

We had decided to walk to the end of one street and head back, as as we did, we walked past 4 older men, dressed in their customary white dish-dasha, sitting and chatting to each other on a marble plinth. As we walked past them, one asked us in perfect English, if we were lost. We told them that we weren't lost but from that one act of concern, came a rich conversation and experience I suspect many holidaymakers never have. 

We discovered that the 4 men were not Emiratis but in fact 2 were from Palestine, 1 from Syria and the other from Iraq. They had come out from evening prayers and were sat talking about life and the world around them. The 2 Palestinians told of their journey from Palestine and how one became qualified in engineering and the other became a Doctor specialising in Dermatology. The Syrian was a Maths teacher and the Iraqi was retired but looking for his next wife! 

They were very excited to hear about our travels and the fact that I had been to the Palestinian West Bank on 3 occasions. 

I spoke at length with the Doctor and discovered that oppression and lack of opportunity had driven him and his friends to leave Palestine - for them there was no hope in a world that had simply forgotten their Nation's plight. He came to England on a Jordanian Passport and a visa from the British Embassy; his friend only had a travel document issued by the Palestinian Authorities.

When they arrived in England, he was granted entry but his friend was not allowed to enter the UK, because he did not have a passport and was classed as someone who was Stateless.

Not deterred and determined to maintain solidarity with his friend, they both left the UK and headed for Iraq.

Once in Iraq, Mohammed qualified as a Doctor. He then headed to Germany where he practised as a Doctor and then went to England where he studied for a post-graduate degree in Dermatology. He then travelled to New Zealand where he brought up his family and acquired citizenship; he was now living in the UAE, partly because he couldn't return to Palestine (some of his family still live on the West Bank) and partly because he wanted to live in a society where he had more in common with the people and customs rather than suffering with a feeling of isolation, particularly in a world that had become polarised. 

We talked on about politics and the trail of misery left behind by post-colonialism and the ignorance of people about the role their own countries have played in world events. 

For these men, some of whom were in their later years, a return to the place of their birth is now remote. I was told that the Syrian man dreamed only of returning to Syria but his companions had told him repeatedly that this would not be possible; I was not sure if the Syrian man had resigned himself to the fate of never returning to his homeland. 

After an hour of discussion, we went our separate ways, with great wishes of friendship and companionship, including a request from the Iraqi to send over a nice English bride!

I was left with a feeling of sadness but also of inspiration about how through adversity they had achieved their personal ambitions bar one, but I felt that they had become so much more - unwitting citizens of the world from whom we could learn much from. It made me think of my own parents, desperate for a new life to escape the oppression of a Church and State, and in my Father's case never letting go of the dream of home and of having to adapt to a strange new world. 

I also started to think about the many lick-spittle commentaries about migrants, many coming from people who quite frankly are using misery for their own manipulative ends. How many I wonder, on the boats in the Mediterranean, right now, escaping from the mess we have created, are endowed with great dreams, interesting personal histories and ambitions for themselves and their families? 

How many stories have we yet to hear of their bravery, their survival and their desire to be good citizens? As Mohammed said to me, many in the world think of Muslims as being bad or evil; deep down, isn't that what our politicians, media and our own ignorance is teaching us to think? Such consideration of a wider morality or humanity however, has been lost in the outrage of Paris with no sign of rational thought!

In the present climate don't expect to hear rational opinion or humanity anytime soon; instead, look out for more scare stories of the new 'reds under the bed'; the so-called new threat to our society - perish the thought that we should look beyond this modern day McCarthyism and determine the truth for ourselves!

© Frank Brehany 2015 - All Rights Reserved (First Published 1/12/15)