Agree ME based airlines have a good safety record. However reading some of the Pilots' threads on PPRuNe has made me feel that at some airlines this has as much to do with luck as with safety oversight. (i.e. incidents at Melbourne and Johannesburg)
I've also heard that one reason why EK is expanding in the US as quickly as they are is that they are very scared that the UAE would not pass a US FAA safety audit. (Downgrading would result in a freeze of both routes and frequency). Apparently this is due to the lack of oversight of some secondary airports (NOT Dubai or Abu Dhabi). However if oversight is poor at airports like Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah does this mean that the bigger airports can be any better?
I've flown EK once in the past decade and they appeared to be a professional organisation. It did strike me that their CC was more concerned with service than safety. (i.e. they did not object to a passenger's carry-on being left on the empty seat beside him, seat belts not checked, etc. (particularly with passengers in 'national dress'.) Nothing significant, but it did make me feel a little uneasy.