Flydubai Ordeal: Robust De-Radicalisation Initiatives Need Of The Hour

Using a flight to orchestrate a terror attack was almost forgotten, but this incident brings to light the issue of background scrutiny of aircraft crew, including pilots, and the need for tougher counter-terror measures and robust deradicalisation initiatives. 

Though not much is known about the co-pilot, reports suggest that he is a highly educated person who was influenced by radical ideas and extremist views. This brings into the spotlight the need for deradicalization even in the educated middle and upper middle class, even as sentiments have been running high since October 2023. Radicalisation through online media has emerged as a big challenge for families and societies, even in tolerant and moderate societies.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been a model of tolerance and compassion for decades, with an average modern Emirati receiving higher education. Women have ministerial roles. The UAE model and quality of life have attracted several nationalities from across the world, including from the Indian subcontinent. The UAE leadership has been extremely sensitive to India’s concerns of cross-border terror and has been forthcoming in backing India on the Kashmir issue. 

India, UAE Initiatives

India and the UAE co-operate closely on counter-terrorism through intelligence sharing, joint military exercises like Desert Cyclone-II, and frameworks targeting terror financing. The two nations hold regular high-level dialogues, including engagement via National Security Advisors and joint military drills focused on sub-conventional and urban counter-terrorism operations under a UN mandate. A recent letter of intent signed regarding a strategic defence partnership further expands cooperation into cyber-threats and defence technology. Not just that. Both coordinate at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and have rejected the use of religion or state-sponsored proxies to justify or sponsor terrorism. The two countries have also been actively cooperating to curb the misuse of internet and social media platforms for extremist recruitment. The UAE, like Russia, Thailand, and some Eurasian states, has been forthcoming in extraditing fugitives to India. 

The strict rule of law in the UAE ensures that individuals are not radicalized through public institutions. No Emirati has been found promoting terror globally. The UAE as a state has not espoused extremist ideas. Yet no system can be foolproof, as the recruitment of the Flydubai pilot proved. 

The UAE government now requires strict deradicalisation initiatives for families of expatriates. Without being intrusive, the UAE security establishment needs to monitor expatriates across various social strata and not just the labour force. The UAE must get to the bottom of the current terror act to unearth the truth.  

UAE’s neighbour Oman historically has been known to practice a sect of Islam that has preached compassion, peace and tolerance for centuries. The influence of the Ibadi sect can be felt as far away as Morocco and Algeria. Oman has been a model of secularism that has not exported a single terrorist abroad, even during the height of the ISIS campaign in Iraq and Syria, and earlier during anti-US terror attacks in Africa or even in Europe. The Omani society takes pride in this fact, and its neutrality has helped broker peace in the region. Led by the Royal Family, an Omani citizen feels extremely close to Indian ethos and society, even spending their annual holidays in India instead of Europe. In the words of late Sultan Qaboos, when the rest of the Gulf looks West, Oman looks East towards India.  

Away from the public glare, India and Oman have a robust counter-terrorism and strategic defense partnership, anchored by high-level dialogues, intelligence exchanges, and joint military exercises. The national security frameworks of India and Oman routinely hold bilateral strategic consultations focusing heavily on counter-terrorism initiatives, countering terrorist propaganda, and preventing the misuse of emerging technologies. The two nations conduct joint exercises like Al Najah designed specifically to enhance joint counter-terrorism capabilities, room intervention drills, and tactical responses under UN guidelines in desert environments. Through agreements providing the Indian Navy access to strategic facilities like Duqm Port in Oman, both countries coordinate closely to secure sea lines of communication and counter maritime security threats across the Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean Region. It is therefore important for other powers to engage and launch deradicalization initiatives and perhaps take Oman’s help in the exercise. 

Egypt, Morocco: Pioneers In Deradicalisation

The Flydubai episode has also underscored the need to engage all players in the Arab world together so that their experiences can help in carrying out deradicalization initiatives. The Arab Republic of Egypt in northeast Africa and Morocco in the northwest of the continent, based on their ethos of pluralism, have been pioneers in deradicalisation measures that have helped to reform youth.

In Egypt, prominent religious bodies like Al-Azhar's Observatory for Combating Extremism and Dar al-Ifta actively refute radical fatwas, issue counter-narratives promoting coexistence, and dismantle extremist recruitment logic online and offline. 

Launched under the initiative of the Egyptian government, state institutions have been aggressively working to correct and overhaul religious narratives. In July 2017, EgyptianAbdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree establishing the National Council for Countering Terrorism and Extremism, to mobilize institutional and societal energies to reduce the causes of terrorism and address its effects, adopt a comprehensive national strategy to confront terrorism and extremism internally and externally while coordinating with religious institutions and security agencies to enable moderate religious discourse.

India and Egypt maintain a robust strategic partnership focused on mutual security. The bilateral counter-terrorism dialogue serves as the core platform for security agencies from both nations to exchange intelligence, review regional threats, and coordinate strategies, and Cairo has been forthcoming in backing India against cross-border terror.

Counterterrorism Strategy

Morocco’s deradicalisation initiatives are part of a multidimensional counterterrorism strategy launched after 2003, combining religious reform, targeted prison rehabilitation, and socioeconomic development. The Kingdom has been resolutely committed to a multidimensional strategy that places development at the core of its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism. Morocco has formally offered to share its home-grown counter-terrorism and deradicalisation expertise with India, given its prominent role in North African security. In 2025, the two sides decided to intensify defence industry collaboration and agreed on a comprehensive roadmap covering counter-terrorism, maritime security, cyber defence, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, and expert exchanges.

Over the last one and a half decades, states have traced the origin of extremist ideas to Syria, where foreign fighters driven by extremist ideologies had gathered to fight a secular regime. That regime no longer exists, and under the new regime, Syria is returning to the mainstream, and politics are being consolidated. Key states in the region need to engage Syria in serious counter-terrorism initiatives and vice versa. Similarly, states whose nationals fought in the Syrian theatre need to frame a common strategy to counter extremist views.

Importantly, a global convention is imperative to combat online radicalization through a well-laid-out policy through institutions and societal leaders.     

(The writer is a commentator on geopolitics and geoeconomics. Views expressed are personal.)