After the flydubai incident, earlier remarks by Al-Gharyani urged pilots to attack Israel and promised them victory and honour
LIBYA – Sadiq Al-Gharyani, the General National Congress mufti dismissed by parliament, in filmed remarks that predated the flydubai aircraft incident, called on pilots to attack Israel without waiting for permission from their leadership, arguing that being killed during those attacks would grant them victory and honour. The substance of these remarks was previously published on 28 March 2025.
A call to attack without waiting for orders
Al-Gharyani, whom the report described as listed on terrorism lists in Gulf states and Egypt, addressed Muslim armies and pilots in the clip monitored by Al-Marsad, asking what they were waiting for and objecting to any wait for their countries’ leaders to approve an attack on Israel. He proposed that three or four pilots take their aircraft and carry out attacks, describing their deaths in the course of them as “martyrdom”, as he claimed, and using the words shame, disgrace and humiliation to urge them to act.
The remarks, according to information accompanying the clip, were made on Al-Tanasuh channel, which receives funding from the Libyan public treasury, as does Dar al-Ifta, according to information given to Al-Marsad and confirmed by it. That funding, the report said, raises questions about the use of platforms supported by public money to broadcast calls to attack.
The Libyan House of Representatives voted in November 2014 to dismiss Al-Gharyani as mufti, dissolve Dar al-Ifta and transfer its functions to the Awqaf Affairs Authority.
Attempted terrorist act aboard flydubai
In an operation that, as the report put it, appeared to carry out Al-Gharyani’s instructions, a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30 September 2026 saw an assault inside the cockpit, before the situation was brought under control and the aircraft landed at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE attorney general, Counsellor Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, announced on 3 October that investigations had found an attempt by the co-pilot to carry out a terrorist act, after he assaulted the aircraft’s captain with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft. He said investigations were continuing in order to determine the motives and possible links and to complete the examination of physical and digital evidence.
UAE warning against discourse that justifies terrorism
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President of the UAE, said in a comment on the recent terrorist operation that “justifying terrorism with hate speech is part of the danger, not its margin”, stressing the need to confront extremism and the discourse that feeds it, and to cut off its sources.
The UAE statements cited did not announce any link between Al-Gharyani’s remarks and the flydubai incident, while the authorities continue to investigate the circumstances of the incident and its motives.
