Yusra Ismail

Yusra Ismail is a teenager who, in 2014 at age 19, allegedly stole a friend's passport and used it to travel from her home in Minnesota to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. She was one of more than a dozen Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities area who are confirmed to have joined ISIL. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Life before ISIL

Ismail was born into a Somali family in Nairobi, Kenya, the eighth of nine children by a widowed mother. In 2009, she moved to St. Paul, Minnesota with her family. She was a practicing Muslim. She graduated from Lighthouse Academy of Nations, a charter school in Minneapolis. There she was remembered as a quiet, respectful and kind student.

By the time of her disappearance, Ismail was in the process of becoming an American citizen. She had stopped attending her family's mosque and begun attending another one, the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. She was studying Arabic and working towards her goal of memorizing the Quran.

Her family described her as a shy girl who preferred to be alone. They said they thought Ismail’s intensive religious studies had been taken "too far" and left her with a lack of balance in her life. They had even confronted her about their concern. They had not, however, noticed any warning signs that she planned to go Syria.

Departure for ISIL and disappearance

On August 18, 2014, Ismail allegedly stole a female friend's U.S. passport during a visit to her friend's home. On August 22, Ismail told her family she was going to a friend's bridal shower and left home, and never returned. Another friend drove her to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. She took a flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, then to Oslo, Norway, flying on the stolen passport.

At 6:00 a.m. on August 24, Ismail called her family and said she was in "Sham", a term used to mean parts of Syria and Iraq where ISIL had recently declared a caliphate. She said she had gone there to study the Quran. Her family contacted the FBI to report her disappearance. Ismail made three calls to her family in the weeks after her arrival in Syria, and during the calls, she sounded "content" and said she was living with other girls from all over the world.

Ismail's friend did not realize her passport had been taken until after she had heard Ismail had traveled overseas using someone else's passport. She then checked the place where she stored hers, realized it was missing and notified police that Ismail must have taken it. In December 2014, Ismail was charged in absentia with stealing and misusing a passport. She had booked a return ticket for September 1 when she left the United States, but never used it.

At least four other people who attended the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center went to fight for ISIL, or for the terror group Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Nothing more is known of the fate of Yusra Ismail.

See also

• Amira Karroum
• Aqsa Mahmood
• Brides of the Islamic State
• List of people who disappeared mysteriously (2000–present)
• Nora el-Bahty