We Americans living in the UAE often are asked, by friends and relatives back home:

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

It could be, perhaps, taken in a geopolitical sense.

Syria’s civil war has been going on for 18 months now, and a bellicose Iran is just across the Strait of Hormuz from the UAE.

But inside the UAE? Crime levels are astonishingly low.

I have remarked on this blog before that one of the great surprises of the UAE (for those who have not done their homework), is just how safe it is.

A country of 8 million people includes 7 million foreigners, including 2 million Indians and 1.5 million Pakistanis, and their two countries are often at odds with each other. But expats in the UAE live in near-complete harmony. It’s not as if we all hang out, but generally nobody is going after anyone else. (Abu Dhabi is far, far safer than, say, Long Beach, California.)

I do not know anyone in the UAE who is afraid to be out at night, alone. Personal crime is nearly nonexistent. And on an individual basis, people living in the UAE are relentlessly honest.

As example: A co-worker switched apartments, and the movers cleaned out her old place and took everything to the new.

Among the items shifted was an envelope with money in it, tucked between books on a shelf and completely forgotten by the person being moved.

The movers discovered it and reminded her of its existence — after the move was complete — and the proprietor called to make sure that all the money was there.

Like that. Relentlessly honest.

Now, it appears that the UAE’s reputation for low crime may have helped the Al Ain football club attract a prominent Brazilian player.

Michel Bastos currently plays for Lyon, one of the leading teams in the top tier of French football, but he is set to join Al Ain at any moment.

Bastos wants out of Lyon, his agent told John McAuley of The National, in part because he, his pregnant wife and 5-year-old son were victims of a robbery at their home in Lyon three months ago.

Said Emmanuel de Kerchove: “It was traumatic for him and when it finished he called me direct to say he wanted to leave and find something else. Growing up in Brazil, you have a lot of problems with security and Michel moved to Europe to leave this behind.

“The problem was everyone knew he was a footballer, everybody knew he earned a lot of money. Of course, there are dangerous parts all over the world but he knows the Emirates has a reputation for being safe and everybody talks positively about it.”

Wrote McAuley: “The police never arrested anyone for the crime, but the episode convinced Bastos his time in France was at an end. He admitted at the weekend he needed his future resolved for personal reasons and believes the Emirates provide a safe environment for his family.”

Robbing wealthy people, particularly prominent wealthy people — like successful soccer players — is not uncommon in many parts of the world. Often, a relative is kidnapped and held for ransom.

But the next such kidnapping in the UAE would be the first.

Also involved in this potential switch, of a player still in his prime (at 29) from Ligue 1 to the UAE Pro League champions, are the payment of a hefty transfer fee — perhaps as much as 8 million euros (about $10 million) — and an annual salary of 500,000 euros for the player (about $613,000).

But it is the comments about safety that strike me. If I were a fearful footballer … I would think of the UAE, too.

No one would suggest the local league is among the world’s elite, but if a traumatized father/husband who commanded a high salary wanted to move to a country where he wouldn’t worry about every knock at the door … the UAE would be among the top destinations.