October 2009
Current Issue

Ask Ali

Ali Al Saloom is changing the way visitors experience the United Arab Emirates—and perceptions about Arabs and Muslims in general.

By Lara Dunson

Tour guide, cultural consultant, newspaper columnist, television presenter and founder of Embrace Arabia and the Ask Ali portal, 30-year-old Emirati national Ali confidently strides into the traditional majlis (meeting room) at the Abu Dhabi Heritage Village on a sweltering September afternoon.

The air-conditioning is on high, so it’s cool inside—some people have even slipped on sweaters and pashminas—yet, outside it’s a typical sultry late-summer day with temperatures hovering around 104 degrees Fahrenheit. With 55 percent humidity, it feels like 114. Sweat still trickles down our temples, yet there’s not a bead of perspiration visible on Ali’s brow.

He looks fresh and dapper in his checked ghutra and agal, the traditional Arab headdress, and crisp camel-coloured dishdasha, the ankle-length cotton gown that is the national costume, though most Emirati men wear it in white. Like the rest of us, Ali has removed his shoes—the leather sandals that local men wear—and left them outside the door, as is customary. But whereas most of us have curled our bare feet beneath us, a tad embarrassed to be so naked in front of so many strangers in such a formal setting, Ali is completely relaxed. He’s almost 30 minutes late, and it will be another half hour before the evening properly starts, yet not a single one of the 50 or so people in the room seem to mind—or if they do, they don’t show it.

Time moves at a much slower pace here—especially during Ramadan, when Muslims are fasting and work shorter hours. Unless intent on driving themselves insane, the unhurried pace of life here is something to which new arrivals—expats and visitors—need to quickly adjust. Like in Mexico, where everything is mañana—why do something today when you could do it tomorrow?—here, on the Arabian Peninsula, it’s enshallah, meaning God-willing. If God wills it, it will happen. If he doesn’t, it won’t. Or, God-willing it will happen eventually, but nobody is particularly worried if it doesn’t.

Another reason why participants do not seem particularly bothered by Ali’s lateness is because immediately upon his arrival, he greets guests with such sincerity and warmth, in the way that a master at hospitality can. He acknowledges the people he’s met before—some have attended his cultural workshops organized as part of their company orientation programs, a handful have joined his guided tours of Sheikh Zayed Mosque and other sights around the city, and still others have read his weekly column in Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper, where Ali responds to reader questions, such as whether it’s acceptable for men and women to hold hands in public. Then, Ali warmly greets first-time participants he has never met, newcomers to the country who are attending this Ramadan evening to find out what the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar is really all about.

Ali’s enthusiasm is infectious and his ability to put people at ease impressive, but there is something else in evidence that’s not usually found in presentations given by Emirati men, generally known for their reserved nature. As Ali gesticulates wildly, peppers his stories with jokes and casual turns-of-phrase and moves about dramatically treating the majlis as a stage rather than a meeting room, it becomes apparent that it’s an element of performance and a sense of showmanship more commonly found in the West that sets Ali apart from other cross-cultural speakers in the Emirates. But then Ali is unique and very much an individual in a society that’s tribal and collective in spirit.

Realizing a Dream
Ali is proud of the fact that his life has been lived a little differently than most Emiratis. For as long as he can remember, he has traveled. Ali’s father, a teacher, an avid reader and a traveler, took his family abroad regularly, and it was his dad who encouraged him to study overseas and enter hospitality.

“When I was a kid, my dream had always been to be a pilot,” Ali says. “But then there was a tragedy in the family—my cousin, an air force pilot, died flying—so I wasn’t allowed to become a pilot. I asked my dad, ‘What can I do now?’ He said: ‘Go into hospitality.’ He was a visionary, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I was so ignorant then, I thought he wanted me to work in a hospital!”

Ali went to study in the U.S. and Canada, doing stints in between working in Europe and the U.K. to develop practical skills. Once armed with his undergraduate degree in hospitality management and tourism and a master’s degree in brand and cross-cultural management, Ali returned to the U.A.E. and set about developing more industry experience working at Abu Dhabi’s Beach Rotana hotel where he tried his hand at everything from housekeeping to concierge.

Ali joined the newly launched Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority in 2005, where he found himself helping establish the emirate’s first meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition department. Working in an organization that was heavily staffed by foreigners, Ali became the first choice when VIPs visited and a local person with knowledge of U.A.E. history and culture was required. It was during this period when Ali began showing everyone his city—including movie star Antonio Banderas and celebrity architect Frank Gehry—that he began to develop his guiding skills and started injecting personality and humor into his tours.

“I joined the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, because I had qualifications in tourism and hospitality,” he says. “But I also wanted the security that a government job provides in the U.A.E. However, I remember waking up one day, and there was one thing in my head: when Sheikh Zayed (the late U.A.E. president and founder of the U.A.E. Federation in 1971) passed away he left us with something—it was his legacy.

“Whenever Gulf Arabs travel to other countries in the region, the guys at the immigration desks look at our passports before they stamp them and they can tell by our names where we’re from…they’ll recognize the name and say, ‘Ah, you’re from Qatar? Welcome.’ Or, ‘You’re a Kuwaiti? Marhaba!’ The amazing thing is that when they identify an Emirati, they always say, ‘Sons of Zayed, welcome!’ When I began to reflect on that and think about what Sheikh Zayed had done to develop the U.A.E., and the legacy that he left us…I thought to myself that if we don’t continue his work it will all disappear.

“So that very morning I decided I had to do more than my secure government job. I remember looking at my parents’ old photo albums, at how tough life was then, and looking at what they went through during those early years of development…they’d come so far. So I found myself wanting to contribute in a greater way,” he says, “I felt that I had to embrace what we had, to embrace Arabia…and to embrace and respect other cultures, and show them why they should respect us. It was like a calling. I quit my job straight away.”

Ali formed his own tour company, hired a mini-bus and began showing small groups of tourists his city. The incessant questions people asked about his country and culture—from how they should dress to whether they could take photos of locals—inspired him to start his online portal, Ask-ali.com. The cultural awareness classes and activities were a natural progression.

Another Groundbreaking in the Emirates
Ali is something of a groundbreaker in the U.A.E. tourism and hospitality field, though he isn’t the first Emirati to work in the industry. Emirati women from neighboring city-emirate Dubai have been working in tourism and hospitality since the Dubai Women’s College established a travel and tourism program in 2000. Nor was Ali’s Embrace Arabia the first organization to offer cultural awareness programs aimed at breaking down barriers between different religions and nationalities. The Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU) in Dubai was created in 1995 to do just that. The main objective of its Open Doors, Open Minds program, which includes guided visits to Jumeirah Mosque and Cultural Breakfasts at its courtyard-house headquarters in Dubai’s historic Bastakiya quarter, is to raise awareness of the local culture, traditions, customs and religion among foreign residents and visitors.

Dubai, however, has been doing tourism far longer than Abu Dhabi. Indeed, companies such as Arabian Adventures were offering desert safaris with camel rides, sandboarding and bellydancing to foreign tourists well before the city’s sail-shaped Burj Al Arab (the world’s first “seven-star hotel”) opened its doors in 1999 and put Dubai on the world map as a luxury travel destination. The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority wasn’t established until 2004, and the city’s own “seven-star” hotel, Emirates Palace, didn’t opened until a year later in 2005.

Ali has used his charismatic personality and name to promote tourism and raise cultural awareness—largely through his Ask Ali column and information portal—and become something of a local media celebrity in the process.

“I was the first Emirati to offer guided tours in a mini-bus I hired myself. I’ve written everything on the portal—I answered 700 questions in six months. Now I’m writing a mini-guide to the city, I’m developing TV shows and I’m publishing a guidebook,” he says proudly.

Up until Ali, tours were guided by Indian or other Arab expatriates, portals were the domain of the government tourism bodies, TV shows were limited to foreign-produced programs on the Travel Channel and guidebooks published by Time Out and Lonely Planet were written by long-term expatriates.

Ali adds a genuine local flavor and authenticity to the U.A.E.’s tourism and cultural offerings that has never been available before. Whether visitors take one of his guided tours or sign up for one of Embrace Arabia’s cultural activities, they now learn about the U.A.E. culture and experience the destination through a warm, friendly, enthusiastic Emirati in a way they couldn’t before.

The Ramadan program that Embrace Arabia offered wasn’t so different from activities offered by the SMCCU or private tour companies, but Ali’s personality—in particular, his passion, energy and exuberance—sets his tourism and cultural offerings apart from the others.

Creating the Legacy of a Storyteller
Aside from his father, who died earlier this year, and the late President Sheikh Zayed, Ali’s heroes include Oprah Winfrey and Australia’s “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, someone he had the opportunity to befriend, and greatly admired. They were entertainers, performers and storytellers.

This evening, Ali tells his guests a story, all the time moving around the room, gesticulating with his arms, making eye contact with his guests: “I was asked to deliver a speech recently for a company on the theme of peace so I told a story that dates back to the beginnings of Islam, about the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him… Every day the Prophet would walk the same way, and every day a woman would wait for him, and just as he arrived near her home, she would throw her garbage on him. She did this every day and yet the Prophet did nothing. He just kept walking the same way. Until one day, when he walked past her house, she wasn’t there…maybe he had left earlier, the Prophet thought to himself, and continued to the mosque.

“The next day, the Prophet walked by her house again and he again didn’t see her, so he decided to go to her home. He found her inside, lying in her bed, surrounded by her family—she was ill. She said to him: ‘So, you’ve come for revenge, have you?’ He hadn’t. He simply asked her how she was, and whether he could do something for her. She was astounded. She was shocked that he forgave her so easily. At that moment, she believed that he was the Prophet. For all the great Prophets—not only Mohammed, but also Jesus Christ—forgiveness was their middle name,” Ali concluded.

The story was intended to illustrate one of the meanings of Ramadan for Muslims—a time for forgiveness. Like many of the stories he tells throughout the evening, Ali’s intention is not only to share his culture, religion and country, but also to dispel myths and make connections.

At the end of the long evening, after everybody has enjoyed their traditional desserts and cardamom-flavored coffee, Ali says goodbye to each and every one of the participants, then sits on the majlis cushions and releases a small sigh. He must be tired—after all, it is the last week of Ramadan and he’s been fasting all day every day for four weeks, offering these activities in the evenings—yet he continues chatting with the same energy and passion he showed four hours earlier.

“You know, I feel disappointed when I see local people who don’t appreciate the wealth we have here, and how far this country has come in 40 years. I don’t want to be like that—I want to leave a legacy,” he says.

So what next? I ask.

“I want to publish my books, I want to make a film, I want to do my Ph.D. and I want to travel more. I want to travel all over the world. And I want to do it all by the time I’m 35,” he says.

That’s very ambitious, I think as I remember something he told the group earlier: “Things happen at a different pace here. Life is so slow in some ways and yet the country has developed so fast. I like to say that the Emirates has grown 10 years in one day.”

Ali has certainly achieved in five years what many others would in 10. And yet his grand plans still aren’t enough.

“But most of all,” Ali says, “I want people to remove from their minds the idea of Bin Laden when they think of Arabs and Muslims. Instead, I want them to think of Ali Al Saloom!” One+

LARA DUNSTON is a globetrotting travel writer currently based in the United Arab Emirates.

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