A Muslim woman who praised Islamic State, and dreamt of beheading a right-wing journalist and celebrating her wedding with attacks, has been found guilty of terror offences.
Madihah Taheer and her husband Ummar Mirza discussed carrying out a terror attack and killing Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins. She also bought a hunting knife and a life-size dummy to practice on.
Taheer, 21, from Birmingham, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday of preparing to commit terrorist acts, the Birmingham Mail reports.
Her husband and his sister Zainub Mirza had already pleaded guilty to similar offences, with all three due to be sentenced on December 1st.
The trial heard how the couple had boasted to each other about their extremist views and discussed how they would celebrate their marriage by carrying out an attack.
In one exchange, Mirza wrote: “The day of nikkah [wedding], I’ll kill em all. Give me the list, the only thing that stops me is we are not married. I will defo, I’m not joking.”
Taheer responded: “Lool, u can’t have it til u put a ring on it.”
“So sorry you are going down Madihah. Expect to do a whole lot more of that on the inside,” commented Mrs. Hopkins on Twitter.
Ms. Taheer’s husband Ummariyat Mirza and his sister Zainub Mirza. (West Midlands Police)
The training dummy found in the couple’s house. (West Midlands Police)
Deputy Chief Superintendent Matt Ward, head of West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, commented: “Ummariyat Mirza’s plan was escalating quickly so the decision to carry out arrests in a busy Birmingham street at rush hour was not taken lightly.
“The planning had begun in 2015 but quickly gathered momentum in terms of the volume and especially the nature of the shared material with the majority of videos shared by Zainub Mirza to her brother.
“The constant stream of material and supportive comments sent were, we believed, to encourage Ummariyat Mirza to begin acts of preparation for terrorism.
“When Ummariyat Mirza and his sister were arrested, mobile phones were found in the car and at their respective addresses, as well as at other family addresses.
“Their devices were examined and a significant quantity of relevant mindset material was found on them.
“The communications between Ummariyat Mirza and his sister revealed they shared extremist material and praised killings carried out by Daesh.
“It is thought Mirza and his wife, encouraged by Zainub, were planning to carry out an attack in the UK, it is not known where this attack would have been, but we discovered research into potential targets, including military sites in the area.”
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