Dr. Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi, or al-Salabi (; born 1963 in Benghazi) is a Muslim historian, religious scholar and Islamist politician from Libya. He was arrested by the Gaddafi regime, then left Libya and studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and Sudan during the 1990s. He then studied in Qatar under Yusuf al-Qaradawi and returned to Libya during the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi and distributed weapons, money, and aid to Islamist groups in the country. His actions were criticized by members of the internationally recognized Libyan government under the National Transitional Council who he in turn criticized as being secular. Sallabi has written several books which have been published and widely distributed by Saudi-based companies to English and Arabic speaking audiences. He is the son of Osama Salabi. He is an author of some books which are read across the globe by people of all religions. Sallabi was placed under the Terrorist watch list and issued a travel ban by a number of Arab Nations following the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis. Politics During Gaddafi regime Under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, Sallabi was detained in the infamous Abu Salim prison for eight years. After being released, he studied theology in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, obtaining his doctorate in 1999 from the Omdurman Islamic University in Sudan. After living for a time in Yemen, in 1999 Sallabi moved to Qatar where he studied under Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the international Muslim Brotherhood who lives in Doha, the Qatari capital. As a member of the Muslim Brotherhood himself – a movement he had joined at an early age along with his father – Sallabi was welcomed by al-Qaradawi as well as by the Qatari ruling family, the most prominent patron of the international movement. Qatari-sponsored TV station al-Jazeera broadcast several appearances of Sallabi, in which he decidedly aligned himself with al-Qaradawi and his pro-Islamism ideological positions. The Qatari rulers encouraged Sallabi to work on a reconciliation deal offered by Gaddafi once the sanctions were lifted on the Libyan regime in 2003. Sallabi then returned to Libya, where he directed a program to de-radicalize imprisoned militants. Sallabi is also associated with Abdelhakim Belhadj, emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and one of the commanders of the National Liberation Army. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group is a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda, that provided some of al-Qaeda the highest ranking and most