I have lived in the GCC with dogs for 10+ years. Unfortunately, I suspect that the ethicity of your friend has more to do with the lack of official response than the ethnicity of the "complainers" (for lack of a better term). As a white western woman, I have had my problems but have been able to resolve them with my neighbours (who were not comfortable with dogs) and a lot of it had to do with my physical "appearance" and my nationality.

I suspect that from your post your friend does not share my "advantages". If the young man next door does have mental issues, it would probably be best to try and find alternative accomodation. Besides having issues with dogs, there are real issues with mental illness/challenges in this region - mainly because there are few alternatives/treatments/outlets for families to learn how to live with such and integrate children with such issues into the community. It's simply because they haven't "caught up" (for lack of a better term - I know they love their children) with other societies yet, it will happen but it has always been a private matter to date. It takes time to educate not only families but society at large - we're still working on this in Canada too.

I have been lucky because I am a single female, I explain that my dog is my protector in the absence of a father or brother. My dog may bark, but if the attacker comes at me with a tennis ball, I'm toast, the tennis ball will win.
Signature line > "You can't fix stupid"