The Birmingham couple who put IS at heart of marriage - BBC News
The pair argued over who was more radical - and on whether to spend money on weapons or baby clothes.
Madihah Taheer: Convicted of preparing an act of terrorism

Three members of the same family have been convicted for being part of what could have been a major terror attack on the streets of Birmingham. Prosecutors say that at the centre of the plot foiled earlier this year were a husband-and-wife team who put the self-styled Islamic State's cause at the centre of their marriage.

At the top of 21-year-old Madihah Taheer's Facebook profile is a painting depicting what appears to be a Muslim warrior from antiquity, galloping away from battle with a maiden clinging tightly to him. She gazes lovingly into his eyes. She is in the arms of her conquering hero.

That was the life for the failed A-Level student from Birmingham.

She dreamt of escaping her cannabis-smoking dad who had tried to marry her off to her first cousin.

And she thought she had found her hero in Ummariyat Mirza. A life as heroes in Syria.

Except the dream ended in squabbles over whether to spend money on weapons or baby clothes - and her husband wrestled to the floor by armed police.

Ummariyat Mirza, also known as Ummar, and his sister Zainub were arrested on 29 March as they drove through Alum Rock in east Birmingham. Plain clothes officers had covertly followed them in a joint operation by MI5 and the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit.

Just a week after the Westminster Bridge attack, intelligence indicated Mirza was planning some kind of similar knife-led rampage in his home city.

Earlier this month he admitted preparing an act of terrorism.

Prosecutors said that Mirza had:

Martial arts dummy: Used by Mirza to train

Days later, as the trial of Mirza's sister approached, Zainub Mirza admitted encouraging him by sharing extremist videos that cemented his mindset.

The wife, Madihah Taheer, denied being involved. But today, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court found she was also guilty of preparing an act of terrorism by buying the knife her husband would use - and knowing what he would use it for.

Over the course of her trial, Taheer denied that allegation - but the jury at Woolwich Crown Court heard that her relationship with her husband, which began as a teenager's obsessive love, was at the heart of their plots, schemes, plans and fantasies.

Taheer was 17 and at sixth form when she met her future husband.

It was a secret love. She said she wanted to escape her family and charismatic Mirza said he was going places.

In their bedrooms, via mobile phones and iPads, they played out their dreams. He would be the big hero mujahideen fighter giving it to President Assad in Syria and any other Kuffar, the unbelievers.

She was the jihadi-bride to-be, inspired by an infamous blog, written by another young woman who had married a fighter in Syria.

"OMG man she made me want it so bad," she messaged to her secret boyfriend. "She's honest and it's beautiful man. Just raw and proper life."

In Whatsapp chats, Mirza described himself to his love as a "terrorist who doesn't wanna live that long" and they agreed they should aim to reach Syria within a year of marriage.

But Taheer wanted her husband-to-be to first take care of a few local people who had challenged her thinking.

"Can we get married already ffs?," said Taheer in late 2015. "I want you to kill people for me I have a list."

"The day of niqqah [the marriage] I will kill them all, give me the list," replied Mirza.

"You can't have it until you put a ring on it," she said.

They squabbled over who was the most radical and they laughed at videos of IS killings, hostage beheadings and terrorism attacks.

"I hope our babies look like you. Your [sic] perfect," messaged Taheer one day. "Do you want a boy or girl first?"

"Boy cuz I want a male best best jihadi friend I don't have none :( so when I'm 40 I'll have a rest [sic] friend who is 20 and he'll be jihadi and funny and my bestest friend," he said.

As their April 2016 wedding approached, their messages to each other showed Syria was fading into the background. Attacking at home loomed into view.

"You are a perfect partner and soulja and soulmate," wrote Mirza. "What I have in mind is very sophisticated. I need a right hand."

His girlfriend replied: "If we get married then u know I'm up for it."

Throughout her evidence, Taheer said this talk was just a joke. A sick joke that she was now ashamed of, but it had been "their humour".

She said she had been brainwashed into following IS by a charming but increasingly manipulative young man.

"I was just turned 17 and he was still 16," she told the court. "He was a difficult person to be in a relationship with, very controlling, very jealous and it became clear to me quite early in the relationship that he suffered from depression."

Taheer said her future husband's helplessness and search for answers alighted on IS.

"Talking about Islamic State gave him a distraction," she told the jury. "I was sucked into it as well. In hindsight I see that he was egging me on. I do not have those beliefs now. I was completely wrong, immature and stupid."

Taheer told the jury that she began using ploys to humour her husband rather than challenge him. One, she said, had been to delay a departure date for Syria because her eyesight was poor.

"Ummar, I'm not making Hijrah [moving to Syria] without getting the laser [eye surgery] done first," she said.

"You shut up," he replied. They have the facilities there ok."

"Imagine if we're on the run and my glasses break. We're f*ed. I don't wanna be reliant on something to help me see."

Following their April 2016 wedding, Taheer said the reality of working for a living as a nursery administrator and her subsequent pregnancy dispelled her fantasies. She said she woke up to IS heroes.

"When you are brainwashed into something, it takes a long time to get out of it," she told the jury. "I came out of my bubble and began to see the world for what it really was.

"Love is blind. I did not realise that I was under that kind of manipulation."

The case against Mirza, to which he pleaded guilty, was that his plans crystallised early in 2017.

His obsessive character - which involved nagging his wife to buy him "toys", turned to asking her to buy him a £300 combat knife.

The prosecution's case was that given their history, Taheer knew what her husband was planning. Her only concern was the cost.

"It is too much money," she messaged him from work when he told her what he wanted to buy. "Can't we wait until I get paid. Got bills to pay - baby things to buy. It doesn't have to be bloody state of the art."

"This isn't a fantasy, it's real," he said. "We are living like kuffar [disbelievers]."

Eventually, on 21 February, Taheer bought her husband a knife for £120 - the key evidence against her.

And he had been training how to use it on a martial arts dummy at home.

On 20 March, Mirza wrote the following to a family group chat: "We should try to avoid making all of these big claims of what we can do and how we're going [sic] give victory to Islam. Just do it, don't talk about it.'

A week after the Westminster attack, he posted a single picture to his Whatsapp account: an emoticon of a knife. It looked like a signal. The police moved in and his plans were smashed.

Taheer said she had no idea that her husband genuinely intended to carry out an attack.

But the jury did not believe her - and she was found guilty of a single act of preparing an act of terrorism.

During one particularly stormy moment in Taheer and Mirza's relationship, she told him: "I regret meeting you, talking to you, listening."

Once they are sentenced, she may have a very long time to think about that regret.