Outrage, anger, and disapproval on today’s UAE Twitter feeds. There are times when you hold your head on your hands and wonder how anyone could have posted this or that online.

The veritable Time Out Dubai got itself into a pickle today with the below article which was published online.

The offending article on Time Out Dubai’s website today. The 5 to try: bars in Ramadan piece was pulled down earlier today

While Dubai does have its fair share of bars, the timing of the article wasn’t in the best possible taste. The holy month of Ramadan began last week. Ramadan is a time for reflection, abstinence and fasting for Muslims. While alcohol is not consumed by practicing Muslims it is freely available in Dubai. Places that serve alcohol during Ramadan do little to promote themselves during this month, and it’s beyond me why this article was even commissioned. Putting bar in the same sentence as Ramadan is bound to cause trouble and/or offense.

I don’t know for how long the article has been online but the tweets were rolling in thick and fast last evening and this morning. Here’s a couple of them below.

https://twitter.com/RoMaNiSta_8/status/227409821618536448

While there has been an angry reaction from many people online, there’s also been a good deal of messages defending Time Out Dubai (maybe not so much for the article per se, but for other reasons). Here’s a couple of examples.

I must give kudos to Time Out Dubai for their actions today. The magazine editors have taken down the offending article and they’ve apologized online and through social media. They moved quickly to undo the damage, promise that the incident won’t be repeated in the future and, most importantly, say sorry.

The only question now is, with this so much energy going into a campaign to preserving the sanctity of Ramadan will we see people online start rallying for other worthy causes? Famine in Yemen perhaps? Civil war in Syria? Let’s hope so.