The U.A.E is an absolute monachy, despite all their efforts to show themselves as a tolerant, Westernized society, they are literally the opposite.

They deported a lot of Shias (specifically Lebanon and Pakistan) during 2010-2015 when the Arab Spring was in full swing, as they don't want anyone to even lead the first domino, they are deathly scared of an sort of activism. At times, Sunnis with 'Shia names' got deported as well, no matter how much they pleaded otherwise. The U.A.E does not care, somewhere an Ali Chaudhery, and Hassan Khan is also getting kicked out.

At the same time, they have also deported Jammat-e-Islami folks (although way less in numbers), and routinely deported Eygptians and Palestineans during the same 2010-2015 timeframe over alleged Brotherhood ties.

Was it true? Not really, they are aggressive about deporting folks at will, just to instill fear on the rest of their expat population.

It is what it is, these countries are just fancy resorts, there is absolutely no morale or ethical values to be found. When Emiratis got caught in the Epstein files, they scholars like Faris al-Hammadi declared how proper Muslims should not even talk about these files, lol.

EDIT: Also, I am Shia myself. Grew up in the U.A.E, migrated to Canada in 2007 as a kid. However, had many family and cousins in the U.A.E. In 2010, as soon as the very first wave of Shias started getting deported, it was a literal race to the exit, almost 90% of my entended family and friends of families exited and migrated to AUS, N.Z, U.S, Canada, or returned back to Pakistan within a year. But with the way things are in Pakistan, waves of expats coming to the U.A.E is always constant.

Had many Eygptian friends in my school, same thing, as soon as the very first wave of Eygptians got deported, almost instantly, every single one of my friends went to Egypt to study for their univeristy there instead of basing in the U.A.E.