A Melbourne Islamic center leader brushed aside “false accusations” linking his group to the Flydubai co-pilot who tried to crash a jet into Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, while Australian police still probe the radicalization trail.
Lebanon-born Abu Hamza, also known as Samir Mohtadi, posted a four-minute Facebook video on Sunday rejecting claims that connected his “My Centre” organization to 29-year-old Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami. Breitbart News reported that neither Hamza nor the center faces any criminal accusation. Yet the United Arab Emirates attorney-general has already described a premeditated terrorist plot whose beginnings investigators place in Melbourne.
On September 30, al-Hammami stabbed the other pilot aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight carrying more than 170 Israeli passengers. UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the co-pilot intended to seize the aircraft and fly it into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport.
"seize control of the aircraft" and carry out a "suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport" to cause "the greatest possible loss of life."
Al Shamsi’s office traced the start of al-Hammami’s radicalization to 2017, when the Omani national studied engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. RMIT confirmed he attended but did not finish the degree. Officials said he regularly attended a Melbourne mosque and became acquainted with members of My Centre.
The Australian Federal Police and the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team are investigating “any links” between al-Hammami and Australia. That work continues even after Hamza’s public dismissal of the story.
In the Facebook video, Hamza framed the scrutiny as an age-old pattern of the righteous under fire. He offered no direct reply to the UAE prosecutors’ findings on radicalization or the acquaintance with My Centre members.
"Right through the ages, there’s something common. You’ll find those who are righteous, they’ve always been attacked, abused, accused, killed, imprisoned, and this is the way it is."
He added that explanation rarely moves people already set in their views, so “the best thing sometimes is not to say anything.” The caption read: “Asalam Alaykum, The righteous will always be attacked.”
Rateb Jneid, president of the Sydney-based Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, quickly backed the center. The federation “stood firmly” with My Centre and its leadership.
"Community organizations that have spent years supporting young people and families should not have their reputations damaged through speculation or guilt by association."
No one has charged My Centre or Hamza with a crime. The federation’s statement treats the public discussion itself as the injury.
The attack unfolded about two and a half hours after takeoff at 34,000 feet. Al-Hammami stabbed Indian-origin Hindu captain Smit Machchhar. Despite his wounds, Machchhar opened the cockpit door so passengers and crew could intervene. The jet plunged roughly 18,000 feet in two minutes before control returned.
The Washington Examiner noted that the captain and Jewish Israeli passengers helped keep everyone alive until additional pilots landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun described putting the co-pilot in a headlock and pulling the controls up to arrest the nosedive, drawing on basic moves he had seen in the television series Mayday. Passengers then restrained the attacker with headphones and zip ties while two off-duty pilots finished the landing. The New York Post reported Hayoun later met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still covered in blood.
Four Americans were aboard the flight. A State Department spokesperson confirmed the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Jeddah stayed in contact with local authorities and stood ready to provide consular help. Fox News carried the confirmation as the investigation into the cockpit attack continued.
UAE investigators place the first signs of al-Hammami’s radicalization in 2017 inside an Australian university city known for its large student population. He left without a degree, attended a local mosque, and crossed paths with people around My Centre. That sequence now sits under active review by Australian federal and state counterterror units.
Hamza’s video and the federation statement arrived after the UAE attorney-general had already laid out the suicide-attack plan and the Melbourne timeline. Neither response engaged the specific claims about 2017 studies, mosque attendance, or personal acquaintances. Both instead cast the questions as unfair association.
The flight carried more than 170 Israeli passengers on a route from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The stated goal, according to the UAE attorney-general, was maximum loss of life at the terminal. Crew and passengers prevented that outcome only after a stabbing, a steep dive, and a mid-air struggle for the controls.
Australian authorities have not closed the books on how an Omani co-pilot’s path ran through Melbourne classrooms and religious circles before he boarded a jet bound for Israel with a knife and a plan. My Centre’s leader chose silence over detail. The federation chose solidarity over scrutiny. The counterterror teams are still working the links.
When a suicide plot against Israeli civilians traces back to an Australian city, brushing it off as “false accusations” does not answer the hard questions about who radicalized whom and how long the warning signs were ignored.
