The aim of this thesis is to examme different hypotheses about a crisis of identity in an Islamic society, especially examining the impact of Western modernity from different perspectives - social, personal, national, cultural, political and economic. To achieve this aim the researcher has depended on Weberian conceptions and categorisations about what constitutes modernity, and his opinions about Islamic society developing such a process, especially the shortcomings of such a society in developing the prerequisite conditions for the modernisation that has happened in Europe. Furthermore, other theories about the crisis of identity in Islamic society have been used, such as Al Ahsan's theory in distinguishing the Islamic Ummah from the Western concept of nation, and the historic perspective of the crisis in the Arab societies enunciated by Ghalioun. This work also seeks to test assumptions about the impact of technology and the media, especially since these are Western derived, upon the Arab and Islamic identities. In order to examine such hypotheses the researcher has sought to use a variety of methods, such as studying the UAE society as a case study, complemented with in-depth interviews, and observation, using other quantitative methods such as questionnaires and content analysis to consolidate the qualitative methods. The researcher's objectives are to ascertain whether the opmIOns of intellectuals and personalities within the elite of UAE society reflect the opinions or points of view of the common man with regard to the above hypotheses. Secondly, as observations are capable of being accused of being somewhat subjective, other opinions from a broader base are needed to strengthen the reliability and validity of the results collected before. Thirdly, by assessing and counting the Western material of a Western origin within the content of three Arab newspapers in the UAE I sought to gauge the influence of the Western media on the Arab media and, by extension, of Western culture on the Arab and local readers' perceptions of the world - as shaped by the print media in the UAE.