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A bitter row has broken out between the United Arab Emirates consulate and a businessman over his newly established Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Edwin Hitti, who claims he is a lord, intends to sue the UAE's consul general, Saeed Hamad Ali al-Junaibi, for defamation over allegations that he was not a Muslim and did not have a Muslim name. Mr Hitti said the dispute began last year when he approached the UAE government about the price the consulate was charging for certifications for local businesses to operate in the Emirates. The consul general then complained to the UAE government, he said. "He used every single bad adjective he could think of about myself and the chamber, saying I was pretending to be Lebanese, pretending to be Muslim and that the chamber is not a legitimate organisation and that it is swindling people and encouraging Hong Kong enterprises to invest in it," Mr Hitti said. However, a spokesman for the consul general dismissed the accusation, saying authorities in the Gulf and other consulates in Hong Kong had been warned that they did not endorse the chamber. The spokesman said Mr Hitti had "started something called the Arab Chamber of Commerce", of which they did not approve. "We reported this to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We want to make it clear that this man has no connection with us." The dispute comes only months after Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced plans to develop an Islamic bond market based on sharia-compliant products. Sharia is the Islamic religious law. The government also hopes the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages an estimated US$650 billion of investments for the Abu Dhabi government, will establish a presence in the city. Mr Hitti said the UAE had targeted his organisation because in the Arab world chambers were extensions of government, and they could not accept that his group was independent. "It's unfortunate, and we have been trying to downplay this matter as much as possible, because Hong Kong has been making every effort possible to attract Islamic finance, banking and so on," he said. Mr Hitti said InvestHK was among their 100 members, and the chamber was completely legitimate under Hong Kong law. The chamber, set up in November 2006, also has a Hong Kong Sharia Advisory Council, which is supposed to advise companies on investments that are sharia-compliant. The chamber plans to launch a sharia-compliant stock index in Hong Kong on March 17. Mr Hitti said he would begin his defamation proceedings after the launch. But the spokesman for the UAE consul general dismissed the validity of the index and the advisory council's role. "We also called the Islamic Trustees of Hong Kong and different Islamic groups in Hong Kong, and they do not recognise what he calls an Islamic index," he said. The spokesman also said they did not understand what Mr Hitti meant by "sharia compliance", as the law is different in all countries. "Sharia compliance is a big topic in Hong Kong," he said. "Sharia compliance in Egypt is different to that in Saudi Arabia and different in Pakistan." Muhammad Arshad, imam of the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund, who was initially overseeing the Sharia Advisory Council, said he left the chamber as the trustees did not think he should take part. "I joined because it was Arab but lately it has become known that it was not actually a chamber of commerce, but a private company," he said.
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