In a series of videos on his YouTube channel, the man arrested in the Malaysia Airlines plane ‘bomb’ drama talks continually about dying, dead bodies, funerals and when it’s acceptable to stone a woman to death.
Muhammad Ali Arif, 55, forced the return of flight MH122 on Monday afternoon when he allegedly made a crazed rant about passengers being ‘slaves of Allah’ while clutching a backpack his chest.
The incident began 45 minutes after the flight took off when the Pakistani Australian allegedly reached into the bag, claiming something ‘dangerous’ was inside, and pulled out a copy of the Koran.
The Airbus-A330 plane landed back in Sydney just before 4pm and was isolated at the end of a runway, while panicked passengers were moved to another part of the jet.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested Mr Arif at about 7pm as passengers were safely evacuated from the plane.
The disruption grounded all flights in and out of Sydney airport for hours, with travel chaos expected to continue for days.
Mr Arif was charged with two counts of making a false statement and not complying with directions and listed to appear in court on Monday.
Muhammad Ali Arif (above) in one of his YouTube videos in which he tells followers that it’s acceptable to stone a woman to death when she has committed adultery after she has given birth and finished breastfeeding her child
Muhammad Ali Arif, 55, (above, left) forced the return of flight MH122 on Monday afternoon when he allegedly made a crazed rant about passengers being ‘slaves of Allah’
Mr Arif, whose Linkedin page says he works as a security officer but is a qualified architect with ‘team leader qualities’, has a YouTube channel @followingthefootsteps which has multiple videos of him talking about Muslim teachings.
His Linkedin page says he acquired his experience in architecture back in Pakistan, gaining an ‘Architecture with Distinction’ from the Institute of Pakistan National College of Arts in Lahore and ‘has worked with multinationals architectural practices’.
He ‘is known for his team leader qualities, creativity, functionality and perfection, keen observation and an eye for detail’ as well as ‘creative and original Ideas’ and ‘presentation and interpersonal skills’, his profile says.
In one of the videos, filmed during sunrise and talking about birds, Mr Arif descends into a rant about bodies at funerals and a declaration that ‘I will be nothing when I go in my grave. Everyone will go in their grave’.
In other videos, some of them shot outside with sounds or scenes of kookaburras, magpies and kangaroos, Arif appears transfixed by themes of repentance, and ‘patience and perseverance’.
In one video, reading from his favourite book of Islamic traditions, Mr Arif uses the term ‘slave’ of Allah in a lesson about people being rewarded in death if they show patience when a loved one dies.
‘Allah the Exalted says, “I have no reward other than Jannah for a believing slave of mine who remains patient when I take away his beloved one from the inhabitants of the world”,’ Mr Arif reads, using the Islamic word Jannah, which means Heaven or the place believers go in the afterlife.
‘Wailing and saying nonsense things show weakness of faith. The reward of patience on such things is Jannah, while the result of impatience is displeasure of Allah’.
In another video, reading from the same book – Riyad as-Salihin, described as containing ‘sayings of the prophet Muhammad on ethics, manners, worship and knowledge’ – Mr Arif talks about stoning a woman.
Mohammad Ali Arif, who trained as an architect in Pakistan, rants on board MH122 on Monday about ‘slaves of Allah, a theme he talks about in his YouTube videos which focus on death, funerals and the afterlife
Mohammad Ali Arif asks followers on his YouTube channel is they are ‘givers or takers
‘Do you have any control over your free will?,’ he continues, ‘No you don’t. Then why are you so arrogant … Honestly, how dare you. How dare you!’
Wearing a Levi’s t-shirt and jeans and sitting in a window seat, Mr Arif says the parable is about a pregnant women who tells Mohammed she has ‘committed an offence’ and Allah says ‘treat her kindly’ under after she has given birth.
Then, Mr Arif says ‘her clothes were secured around her and she was stoned to death. She sacrificed her life voluntarily to win the pleasure of Allah, the Exalted.
‘This … confirms the validity of the punishment … for the adulterer, that … he should be stoned to death. It confirms … a pregnant woman cannot be punished … until she gives birth to the child (and) for a year, suckling the baby is completed.’
In Mr Arif’s video which makes constant references to death or dying that begins at ‘Fajr’ time, the first Muslim prayer of the day, he claims that ‘every other living creature and you are one of them’ is praising Allah’.
‘You have been given free will . Free will is a test. That is … the biggest test to fight against the self, to do a jihad against the self,’ he says, referring to the Arabic word for struggle or fight.
At this point Mr Arif erupts into laughter and utters the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ (meaning ‘God is great’) and ‘Alhamdulillah’ (meaning ‘praise be to God’).
After telling his YouTube followers he needs to lose some weight, Mr Arif says ‘I’m nothing, I will be nothing when I go in my grave.
‘Everyone will go in their grave. Don’t be arrogant. One piece of advice, don’t wait for Janazah, he says, referring to the Muslim term for funeral service.
‘And the reason for it, when you go and you attend it, see the body being buried. So when you see the body being buried you realise the value of this world.
‘And it worries you, worries you, even if you are a good person throughout your life, it actually worries you that you will end up there.
Australian Federal Police arrested Mr Arif (above, centre) at about 7pm as passengers were safely evacuated from the plane, the disruption grounding all flights in and out of Sydney airport for hours
Mohammad Ali Arif reads from a book of the prophet Mohammad’s sayings on his YouTube channel, and talks about repentance and punishment and how ‘slaves of Allah’ will be rewarded
‘So by seeing it, your learn a lot … about this life and you realise that this guy cannot even wake up …. I’m going to use every second of my life doing something good for the sake of Allah.’
In other videos, Mr Arif tells a story about a young boy who slays a monster, with ‘the most important lesson is that whatever difficulty one has to face …he should endure it with patience and determination and if … required he should sacrifice his life for it’.
In a video filmed in an Australian field, with kookaburras calling in the background, Mr Arif says ‘whatever Allah takes away or gives belongs to him and everything with him has a limited fixed term in this world’.
In a series of short videos he entitles ‘Food for Thought”, Mr Arif delivers some pith but cryptic advice, saying, ‘There are only two types of people in this world, givers and takers, Which one are you?’ and ‘You’re not in control, but allies’.
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