As ISIS fighters and their families were surrounded and making their last stand in Syria in late 2018, a Canadian woman who was allegedly there with them sent a defiant text to her mother.
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who → surround → mother
“Allah has written that victory is near,” Ammara Amjad wrote, according to the RCMP, which found her messages on a phone seized during a search of her parents’ home north of Toronto.
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which → write → Toronto
Eight years later, the 32-year-old mother of two sat in a courtroom in Brampton, Ont., last week while a jury heard evidence of her alleged involvement in the Islamic State terror group.
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jury → sit → group
The Canadian government brought Amjad back from a Syrian detention camp in 2023, along with her children, both born after she allegedly left home and made her way to ISIS territory.
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she → bring → territory
She now faces a charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
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She → face → group
It is the first prosecution of a Canadian woman accused of living under ISIS as it committed untold atrocities.
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it → accuse → atrocities
To impose its bleak ideology, the jihadist group massacred and enslaved Iraq’s Yazidis, executed captives on video and facilitated attacks in Western countries, including Canada.
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group → impose → Canada
As a result, security agencies have warned that ISIS members returning to Canada following the group’s defeat in Syria are likely to pose a threat, and could commit attacks or radicalize others.
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members → warn → others
Two other women, B.C. resident Kimberly Polman and Montreal’s Oumaima Chouay, have pleaded guilty.
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women → plead → ?
Canada repatriated six more ISIS women from Syrian camps, but they have not been charged.
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they → repatriate → camps
Since Amjad’s trial began on Oct. 22, much of the evidence has consisted of messages she exchanged with her mother — so many that it took the RCMP a year to translate them from Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.
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it → begin → Urdu
In some of the estimated 10,000 texts and audio files, Amjad repeatedly pleaded with her family in Milton, Ont. to send money, and spoke of her decision to leave Canada as a religious duty.
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Amjad → estimate → duty
“This is in the cause of Allah,” she wrote in an April 2018 message, according to RCMP Const. Ragiv Chaudhary, who translated most of the messages.
“You deceived us all, left us in tears,” her mother countered.
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mother → write → tears
“I did not deceive,” Amjad responded.
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Amjad → deceive → ?
“Everyone should have taken this step.”
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Everyone → take → step
Testing Canada’s terrorism laws
The Canadian courts have convicted a growing number of men who fought with ISIS or plotted attacks, most recently in Ontario and B.C. But Amjad’s case is a test of whether Canada can bring to justice the women who were also part of ISIS.
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who → test → ISIS
The trial focused initially on the role of women in the Islamic State, with an expert testifying they were mainly housewives and mothers to the next generation of jihadist fighters.
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they → focus → fighters
Prof. Guido Steinberg said some foreign ISIS women were also given weapons training, and an all-female fighting unit was later established, but added that those caught trying to flee were often punished.
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those → say → training
The trial also turns on the reliability of “battlefield evidence,” also called Collected Exploitable Material, which is the information taken from documents and electronic devices found in Syria.
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which → turn → Syria
But the Crown’s case appears to hinge largely on Amjad’s own statements in the text messages and voice recordings she sent to her mother from Syria, while the defence is challenging the accuracy of RCMP translations.
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defence → appear → translations
Read aloud in court by the multilingual RCMP officer who translated most of them, they allegedly chronicle Amjad’s journey through the rise and fall of ISIS.
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they → Read → ISIS
They also show how Amjad’s exasperated mother tried again and again to appeal to her headstrong daughter to get out of Syria after her first child was born.
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child → show → Syria
“You are not using your brain,” her mother wrote at one point, according to the messages read into the court record by the RCMP officer.
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mother → use → officer
“Parents come before anyone else.”
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Parents → come → anyone
“Parents do not come before Allah,” Amjad replied.
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Amjad → come → Allah
Married two ISIS fighters
Like many of the dozens of radicalized Canadians who flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria to live under ISIS, Amjad had a privileged upbringing, the messages suggest.
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messages → marry → upbringing
“You were living in peace and joy, you had everything,” her mother wrote to her in August 2018.
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mother → live → August
“You guys don’t understand,” Amjad wrote.
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Amjad → understand → ?
But not everyone will do it.
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everyone → do → it
Not everyone will support the right.”
“We are here for the law to apply.”
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law → support → right
Amjad’s messages suggest she followed her first husband to Syria.
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she → suggest → Syria
In the texts, she named him as Bilal.
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she → name → Bilal
The Canadian military has confirmed that a former reservist by that name joined ISIS.
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reservist → confirm → ISIS
Bilal Khan was a private in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry in Hamilton, Ont. but was released from the army in October 2014, the Canadian Armed Forces told Global News.
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Forces → release → News
Despite his military training, he did not last long in Syria, dying within months of arriving in ISIS-controlled territory.
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he → last → territory
Amjad appears to have then married another ISIS fighter named Hamza.
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Amjad → appear → fighter
The court heard testimony that Hamza Parvez was a British-Pakistani ISIS member who, according to the terror group’s own extensive paperwork, entered ISIS territory from Turkey in 2014.
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who → hear → 2014
Calling himself Abu Hamza al-Britani, he posted anti-Western screeds on social media.
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he → call → media
His online posts about missing junk food made him fodder for the British tabloids, which dubbed him “Hungry Hamza.”
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which → make → him
The Daily Mail described him as a “cat-obsessed ISIS fighter from London who dreams about KFC and Nando’s while waging jihad,” adding that fellow jihadists had “advised him to stop eating so much ice cream.”
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jihadists → describe → cream
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
