Islam defines the Arab culture...and Islam is ALL about DOMINATION. Greed always gives birth to the desire for dominance. So why should we be surprised at the huge economic disparities in the Middle East and this scale of decadence in Dubai.
It does now and has more or less for the past 700 years, but the Arabs were deceitful traders long before Mohamed and Islam came along. I learned this after working in the Kingdom twice on telecom projects. Arabs view deceit as honorable if, when trading with someone, you are able to lie and get away with it long enough for the deal to conclude. Seems to be a big part of Russian culture, too. I noticed the similarity when I worked with a bunch of ethnic Russians on a project in Israel.