From Milton Keynes to Melbourne, the Caliphate Goes to Court

Indefinite leave to remain, indefinite leave to post

On October 5, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found Abdullah Yousef, 24, of Milton Keynes, guilty of membership of the Islamic State, collecting information useful to a terrorist and six counts of disseminating terrorist publications. He had set up a Telegram group where, according to the BBC, more than 7,000 photos, 21,000 videos and 270 links circulated: bomb-making videos, an IS guide to attacks with knives and vehicles, a document titled "homemade explosive belts", and a video glorifying 9/11. In case anyone still had doubts, he spelled it out.

"By the way, I am a terrorist."— Abdullah Yousef, in a Telegram message

According to the Daily Mail, he arrived in Britain illegally at 15, claiming to be Syrian, while prosecutors suspect he is Egyptian. He was granted indefinite leave to remain. He used it to post. He will be sentenced at a later date.

The caliphate's housewife loses her appeal

On October 6, Ireland's Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of Lisa Smith, 44, a former Defence Forces soldier from Dundalk, for membership of the Islamic State between 2015 and 2019. In 2022, she had become the first person convicted in an Irish court of an Islamic terrorist offence committed abroad, and got 15 months. Her counsel argued that she went to Syria out of "a religious obligation", and that the only act held against her was her "role as a housewife": cooking and cleaning for her husband.

The judges were not moved. Moving to IS territory to support its state-building project could be enough, they ruled, with no need for combat or propaganda. The defence had compared her to an IRA sympathiser. The court replied that the IRA never claimed to rule a territory, while IS ran courts, taxes, police and housing, and encouraged migration. She stayed until the fall of Baghuz, in 2019. Ireland now has case law: in a caliphate, keeping house means keeping the State.

Terrorist from November 5, pending a judge

On September 29, Florida's governor Ron DeSantis and his Cabinet designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which presents itself as a Muslim civil rights group, a domestic terrorist organisation under a new state law. A first attempt, by executive order in December 2025, had been blocked in March by federal judge Mark Walker, who saw in it "the troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement". Meanwhile, Florida passed a law. CAIR sued again on October 1. On October 6, the same judge declined to intervene urgently: the designation only takes effect on November 5, which leaves time to hear both sides, on October 22.

Florida's file cites CAIR's listing as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, whose leaders were convicted in 2008 of funding Hamas, alleged ties between its founders and Hamas, and a 2014 designation by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR denies any link to terrorism. A former State Department counterterrorism official calls the evidence "grossly insufficient", and Washington, which has had the same file since 2008, never designated the group. CAIR does have a talent for embarrassing its friends: in December 2023, the Biden White House struck it from its antisemitism strategy materials after its executive director said he had been "happy to see people breaking the siege" on October 7.

Don't tell the FBI

On October 6, the FBI arrested an 18-year-old American in a Richfield parking lot, near Minneapolis, just after he paid $600 in cash for an AK-47, four magazines and 200 rounds. The seller was an undercover agent he took for an IS member, and the FBI had rendered the rifle inert. According to the complaint, he had pledged allegiance to IS in a selfie video and planned to shoot 30 to 60 people at the Mall of America on October 24, during a Hmong arts festival. His reasons: the mall was, in his words, "owned by jewish [sic]", and he wanted to kill white people. Above all, it was a matter of faith.

"im [sic] doing for the sake of Allah only"— The accused, in a message quoted in the complaint

In the same exchange, he asked that nobody be told. The complaint rests on hundreds of messages with an FBI informant, who had been chatting with him since December 2024. He had first wanted to join al-Shabaab or IS in Somalia, but could not afford the trip. Minnesota knows the pattern: up to twenty local men left to fight with al-Shabaab, and eleven were indicted in 2015 for conspiring to support IS. Including him, 282 people have been charged with IS-related activity in the United States since 2014, according to a University of Nebraska database. His detention hearing is set for October 19.

Preaching to the converted

On October 8, a Melbourne magistrate granted bail to a 65-year-old man from Carlton charged with membership of the Islamic State and violent extremist material offences. Police allege he pledged allegiance to IS in 2018 and was the most active member of a WhatsApp group, with 9,754 messages, 3,189 images, 1,609 audio files, 811 videos and 487 documents, including beheadings and executions. The Australian Federal Police also accuse him of sharing guides to mass-casualty attacks and tips on evading detection.

The authorities took their time. In 2020, Border Force found videos of a preacher promoting jihad on his devices, then let him fly to Egypt. Police raided his home in 2024 and arrested him in September 2026. Two weeks later, he was out: since a 2023 stroke, he needs care at home every day, and the magistrate found prison could not provide it. His conditions: no leaving Victoria, no encrypted apps, no downloading terrorist material. At an earlier hearing, his lawyer argued that the law targets material sent to "people who don't want to receive it". Preaching to the converted, in other words, would be perfectly legal.

Seven years after the fall of Baghuz, the caliphate has no territory, no army and no currency. It still has a court calendar.