iStock/Thinkstock(DUBAI) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a warning for its citizens; don’t wear the traditional dress abroad.
The advice on Saturday came after an Emirati man was arrested in Avon, Ohio. Ahmed al-Menhali, a 41-year-old businessman, was wearing the national dress at a hotel on Wednesday when an employee reportedly thought he was a terrorist.
According to ABC News affiliate WEWS-TV, police received a call from a hotel employee’s sister who said the man was “in full headdress with multiple disposable phones pledging his allegiance to ISIS.”
The UAE’s ministry of interior did not mention the incident, but tweeted in Arabic, according to BBC, that nationals should avoid wearing the traditional dress “to preserve their safety.”
A video published by WEWS-TV showed police forcing al-Menhali to lie on the ground as he asked police why they were searching him.
“They were brutal with me,” al-Menhali told UAE newspaper The National. “They pressed forcefully on my back. I had several injuries and bled from the forceful nature of their arrest.”
On Sunday, the ministry released travel tips and guidelines for the summer and noted that citizens should abide by other countries’ veil-wearning and burqa bans.
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