By Stewart Tongue

YNOT EUROPE – An edict issued this week prescribes criminal prosecution for anyone caught dealing in online pornography in the United Arab Emirates. The new proclamation specifically makes it illegal for UAE residents to “send, transmit, publish or promote online any pornographic material, gambling activities and any other indecent acts.”

Issued by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the law also provides for the imprisonment of political dissidents and others who “deride or damage the reputation or the stature of the state or any of its institutions, including officials of the government and the monarchy,” according to the government-run news agency Wakalat Anba’a al-Emarat.

The decree also expands the list of offenses and prison sentences for persons who “set up a website or use the internet to call for demonstrations, marches and similar activities without a license being obtained in advance from the authorities” and specifies prison time for anyone “publishing any information, news, caricatures or any other kind of pictures that would pose threats to the security of the state and to its highest interests or violate its public order.”

All of the offenses are lumped together under the noble goal of “combating cybercrimes,” but critics outside the country call the edict an example of unbridled censorship by government. The European Parliament and Reporters Without Borders have accused UAE officials of taking advantage of the region’s tense political climate following the Arab Spring violence earlier this year to reign in criticism within the country under the guise of keeping the peace.

Some have suggested the decree may be the country’s first step toward instituting strict Islamic law, though the government has denied that claim. The law itself includes a clause prescribing jail time for those who “display contempt” for any religion, including Islam, as well as for people who take to the web to distribute “any programs or ideas which would promote disorder, hate, racism or sectarianism and damage national unity or social peace or damage public order and public decency.”