Ibadism

The fact that this particular, uh, alleged hijacker were Oman is very significant because the Omanis are not Sunni or Shia.

They are Ibadi and tend to regard both the Sunni and the Shia with some caution, uh, and they're a very moderate branch of Islam as well.

Now, the Sultan of Oman, both the, the previous Sultan Qaboos and the current Sultan, uh, Haitham, have paid for scholarships for I-Omanis to go to Australia to be educated.

Now, when this particular gentleman apparently returned to Oman and got a job, uh, in the flight side of Oman Air, the national airline, he was, uh, found to be politically unstable.

So that would have only been in the, in the recent year or so because, uh, FlyDubai have not been flying the Tel Aviv route for, for very long at all.

Um, but the fact is that he, he is an anomaly in that he's an Omani.

He presumably is Ibadi, uh, but he is also, uh, as you say, radicalized, and we believe for financial gain, not for himself presumably, but, but for his family.

We'll, we'll fi-obviously find out more because the interrogation techniques of the, the Saudi, uh, internal security forces, uh, are going to get something out of him one way or another, and the Israelis will be cooperating with the Saudis on this as well.

By the way, the, the, the ver- you know more about this, Edmund.

The re- the virgin, the, the, the variant of Islam in Oman is sort of neither Shia nor Sunni, right? It's Ibadi, I think it's called.

The, they're Ibadi, and th- and they can be described as Shia adjacent, a little bit like the Houthis.

I see.

Okay.

So five point six seven billion people, fifty-six lakh seventy thousand people, which is split on sectarian basis within Islam.

About ninety percent of, of Omanis are Muslim, forty-five percent are Sunni, forty-five percent are Ibadi.

That's a sect unique to Oman.

Ibadis are much closer to Sunni than Shia, and the differences between the Ibadis and the Sunnis precede the Shi- Shia, Sunni differences or Shia S- Sunni disputes.

Five percent population is Shia.

The remaining five percent are Christians, expats, and others.

Then he says, "But then the world changed, and so did Oman's sultan.

Now Oman found itself forced to choose, and it chose populism." That is Palestine and Iran.

The Omanis have traditionally been the mediators in the region because they're not Sunni and they're not Shia.

They're Ibadi Muslims, which is a very different thing.

The Omanis have traditionally been militarily dominant, not only over large parts of the western Indian Ocean, right down the African continent and up into Balochistan and into the Eurasian continent, but they have had military incidents with the Saudis and the crucial states, now the United Arab Emirates, around the Bahraini oasis, which was disputed territory, and the Obanis have been dominating their neighbours.

They have been involved with the situation in Yemen.

And the viable brokers in that region are actually the Omanis, once again, because they are not Shia and they're not Sunni.

They're Ibadi Muslims.

They're intimately connected to the problems of Yemen and they've made peace with what was South Yemen over the recent years since the end of the Zafar War.

And the Ethiopians, who have a vital stake in that area and are once again being seen by Washington as a major player in the stability of the Horn of Africa and therefore the Red Sea situation.

He is incredibly intelligent and, I think, and very, very discreet.

So he is the great mediator in the region.

And I think this is the great opportunity to say, how do we approach these people? Because the Omanis, being Ibadi, have contact with all of them, particularly the Zaydi Shia in Yemen.

My measure also, because I read it from a point of view of American policy, is that we've done nothing but mock this up for a long time.

Awọ bó ṣe ń ṣábo.

Ibadi to pọn yi ṣọpọ.

O ko fẹ jẹ mi olábo.

Me and my guys in the Maybach easy.