Qayyum Jamal - Arrest

Arrest

As Jamal left the house for Asr prayers on June 2, he was greeted at the door by members of the Emergency Task Force who entered his house, as another team jumped a fence into his backyard and simuntaneously entered the house ordering all occupants to the ground. His wife refused to comply with any orders, and shouted profanities at the officers, before being allowed to leave and take the children and her mother to the mosque to spend the night, while officers searched the house.

At the police station, on the night of his arrest, Jamal saw reference to the arrests and "four tons of explosives" on television, the first he had heard of any allegations of a plot amongst the group of youths. When he phoned his wife for the first time, he simply advised her that their rent had been paid and the money for their insurance was in the account, and that their car needed to go into a mechanic's.

His outspoken wife continued to garner media headlines, as she alleged that "every Muslim is another potential victim", and that federal authorities had been following her every move, cut the brake lines on a colleague's vehicle and made the computers at Kinko's copy store crash when she tried to send a message requesting prayers for her husband. The media seemed equally fascinated by the notion that a Caucasian woman had converted to Islam and chosen to wear the full abaya and niqab. In addition, her past comments in internet forums under the name UmmTayyab became a subject of amateur analysis. In April 2007, she reported that her brother-in-law had discovered two bullets fired into her Dodge Caravan's engine block.

The oldest of the alleged terrorists, Jamal was 43-years old at the time of his arrest. Portrayed as a "spiritual advisor" to the group, he was accused of helping to coordinate bombing attacks against targets in southern Ontario. The media blasted his "extreme interpretations of Islam", and called him an "older, embittered militant". Secular Muslim critic Tarek Fatah reported Jamal as "creating a Islamacist, supremacist cult".

"One thing I can tell you for sure -- this guy was weird," said a neighbour. "There was one time I said, 'Hi,' and he just looked at me. That was it." —Globe and Mail, June 5, 2006

Held at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex with the rest of the suspects, Jamal was represented at trial by defence attorney Anser Farooq.

On September 25, 2007, he was denied bail.