It was a very subdued Saturday morning on April 1, 2023, in Surrey, B.C., but it quickly became gruesome when this 30-year-old male named Abdul Aziz Kawam went on a stabbing spree, blaming it on ISIS. Luckily, both men he attacked lived, though one was viciously slashed in the throat and could have been killed. The whole thing got labeled as terrorism in court, and it’s a stark reminder of how these lone-wolf types are becoming a real issue up here in Canada, while also showing how tough the victims were.
Everything kicked off around 9 a.m. at a bus stop in Surrey. Kawam walks up to this man and straight-up asks, “Are you Muslim?” The guy says no, and Kawam mutters a quick prayer, whips out a big knife, and goes for the throat. Somehow, the victim dodges enough to get away and dials 911 right then.
A tweet from X.
Just a few minutes later, Kawam hops on a Coast Mountain Bus the Route 503. Out of nowhere, he lunges at another rider near the back doors, slashing at his throat over and over. The poor guy was gushing blood, but he mustered the strength to shove Kawam off the bus, probably saving everyone else on board. Cops showed up fast, and Kawam dropped the knife when they told him to. They arrested him on the spot.
In court, the evidence was pretty chilling. Kawam straight-up admitted he was doing it for ISIS. He even called 911 himself after and said,
“I did this on behalf of the Islamic State,”
while swearing loyalty to their leader at the time, Abu Al-Hussain Al-Hussaini Al-Qurashi. He ranted about how the fighting wouldn’t stop unless folks converted to Islam or paid some tax called jizya, and warned,
“Don’t hide this message from your people.”
Police dug into his phone and found tons of ISIS stuff he’d been collecting for years, plus a video he made during Ramadan right before the attacks, where he promised to wage jihad. Prosecutors pointed out that his style using a knife on random Westerners matched exactly what ISIS pushes in their propaganda.
Both victims pulled through, thank God. The first one didn’t get cut but was shaken up bad, dealing with PTSD and all that. The second guy had his throat and vocal cords messed up pretty severely, but docs said he dodged a bullet or rather, a blade by just millimeters the knife was dull and missed the big artery. Pushing the attacker off the bus while bleeding out? Prosecutors called that an “extraordinary act of bravery,” and I couldn’t agree more.
Kawam faced charges like attempted murder, aggravated assault, and doing it all to help a terrorist group. In June 2025, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper found him guilty, saying it was clearly terrorism. He’s still locked up, waiting on sentencing.
The community in Surrey was rattled people riding the bus started feeling uneasy about their safety. Security folks in Canada made it clear this wasn’t about Islam as a whole, just twisted extremism from ISIS. The prosecution service noted that these solo acts, often sparked by online crap, are still a big worry, not so much organized groups.
ISIS used to hold land in Iraq and Syria, but now they just tell their fans overseas to attack if they can’t come join. Canada’s threat level sits at “medium,” and agencies like CSIS keep warning about violence driven by ideology.
As Surrey tries to move on, officials are thinking hard about how to fight this stuff, especially the radicalization happening online. When Kawam gets sentenced, it’ll close one chapter in a story that really drives home the risks of propaganda and how everyday people can step up in a crisis.
Like prosecutor Oren Bick put it:
“This wasn’t just some random fight. It was deliberate terror. But the victims’ guts and the cops’ quick work saved lives that day.”
