Australian Islamic leader denies connection to Dubai airline co-pilot

The head of an Islamic centre in Australia has said he has no connection to the Dubai-bound airline co-pilot who attempted to hijack a plane, after the UAE accused the man of being linked to the centre. The UAE's attorney general said last week that the 29-year-old Omani co-pilot became increasingly radicalised towards extremism and terrorism while studying in Melbourne in 2017, according to the UAE's state news agency. It reported that through frequenting mosques, he came to know people linked to "MyCentre", which is run by a man known as "Abu Hamza". In a statement on MyCentre's Facebook page, Abu Hamza said he had never met al-Hamami and there was no record of him ever visiting the centre, a registered charity also known as the Multicultural Youth Centre. "I strongly reject any attempt to link me or the Multicultural Youth Centre to al-Hamami," he said in the statement. "These claims are baseless, misleading and risk unfairly damaging the reputation of an organisation that has served the wider Australian community for decades."