Hello, 

Andy from OSM's Data Working Group here.

> I am not the person who decides on the rules, 

For information, the relevant policy created by OSMF is here: https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf .  I would encourage you to read that, particular parts such as "recording what is actually currently used in a particular area, giving pre-eminence to data collected in situ".  Not that "official" names and "official" languages are of relatively low importance - how local people actually name things is much more importance.

> I just apply them.

No, actually, that would be me :)

From looking at e.g. https://osm.mapki.com/history/node/5606954615 , this appears to be about the "name" tag itself, not the individual language tags such as name:ar and name:en.

First things first, if a name for a place is verifiable in multiple languages then there should be name:language tags for those languages.

Secondly, what goes in the "name" tag itself may vary based on how the local community name things.  See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names for lots of detail. 

There is a reference to the UAE on that page, but that was added by one person from the USA in 2017: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Multilingual_names&type=revision&diff=1501734&oldid=1501731 .  It may not reflect local community norms.

I'd therefore suggest discussing it more widely than just this changeset.  The forum (at https://community.openstreetmap.org/tag/uae ) would be a better place.  You can both post photographic evidence for the signs used locally to back up your individual points of view.

Best Regards,
Andy
